A Bitter Frost
by Cassandra Telford
Summary: Why does the Tooth Fairy seem so attracted to Jack Frost? Is it really just because of his teeth, or is there something more? Maybe it has something to do with Jack before he became the Winter Spirit, maybe it has something to do with a girl he knew a long, long time ago.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

First, the main character for the first six chapters is an OC named Tabitha, but after that, the story shifts to focus on Tooth.

Second, I've used the name "Pippa" for Jack's chapter because when I started writing it, there was still a lot of debate about her name and by the time I figured out that her name really isn't Pippa, I'd already written the first six chapters and I couldn't just change it in the middle of the story.

* * *

It was the winter of 1709 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and it was bitter cold. We lived in a small settlement a few days away from Quincy. Life in our town wasn't easy but there were moments that made it worth it. For me, those moments consisted of spending time with my friends, playing in the snow. Running around, playing tricks on each other and the adults made us forget how cold we were.

I was 16 that year, so I spent most of my time inside with my mother teaching me what she could about cooking and housework while my father took up the task of raising my younger brothers, Isaac and James, to take care of their family. They would go out hunting though there wasn't much to catch that winter. The animals that didn't sleep all season long had long since left, seeking warmer weather elsewhere, but the hope of finding it was doubtful. Father was also teaching them to chop firewood, which, even in this cold time, there was plenty of. During our midday meal, our family would sit around our small hearth and try to keep warm, and after, if I was lucky, mother would let me out to play in the snow with the other kids. Our town was small, so we were all friends and spent most of our free time together.

"Tabitha!" a small voice called that day as I stepped out of my family's house and into a particularly cold afternoon. A tiny girl with brown hair and smile from ear to ear ran toward me and I scooped her up happily.

"Why, hello, Pippa," I said, smiling back at her as she clung to my cloak and my white-blond hair. "Look what I've got for you," I continued, a bit quieter. I pulled a small pastry out of my pocket and handed it to her. Even though times were particularly hard right now, my mother still wanted us to have something to look forward to, so she and I would make pastries together. It was supposed to be a special treat for our family, but Pippa was just so darned cute that I couldn't help but share with her. I knew her family was struggling just as hard as ours was. "It's our little secret," I whispered, handing it to her. She squealed happily and gobbled it down, thanking me between bites. I asked a bit louder, "Has the snowball fight already begun?" Just then, I saw a perfectly round snowball shooting toward us and turned my back so it wouldn't hit Pippa and instead hit right between my shoulders.

"Yes, it has," came another voice and I saw Jackson Overland, Pippa's big brother, walking toward us. I couldn't help but smile as he approached. He was a couple years older than me but somewhere between our early childhood and the beginning of our growing-up years, I had developed a special fondness for him that I didn't quite understand. All I knew was that out of the boys in the town, Jack was my favorite and I felt a little warmer in the cold winter whenever I saw him.

Pippa let out an excited giggle that shook me from my thoughts and scrambled out of my arms, scooping up an armful of snow and doing her best to throw it at Jack. He dodged it and scooped up a snowball himself, a smaller and less packed one that he'd thrown at me, and tossed it at his little sister. She squealed when it hit her in the chest and ran toward jack, catching him around his stomach in a tackle. "Oh, no!" cried Jack convincingly as he let himself topple backwards, Pippa on top of him. "You got me, Pip! What am I going to do?" With her endless energy she climbed off of him and dumped another handful of snow in his face. "Ahhh!" said Jack as he wiped it away and scrambled up. "Look out, I'm going to get you!" He stomped through the snow like a very clumsy bear toward her as she joyfully ran to escape. He quickly overtook her and playfully grabbed her up, spinning around and then falling back again, rolling gently on top of her in the snow and laughing. "I got you, Pippa, I got you!"

She giggled and shouted, "Help me, Tabitha!" Until then I'd just been watching them, enjoying the show, but now I grabbed a handful of snow, shaped it, and threw it at Jack, hitting him in the side.

"Oh, now you want to play," he said mischievously, crawling back to his feet and making another snowball, preparing to throw it at me. I laughed and we all started throwing snowballs at each other. The other kids in the settlement, including my little brothers, started running out of their own houses to join us, and it became an all-out battle as we formed and broke alliances, established forts behind trees and planned to sabotage our enemies.

We played until it the sky began to darken and we all heard our parents calling us in for the night. We were all soaked to the bone with snow, most of us shivering, but the younger kids continued to play as they ran back to their houses, staying warm by their energy alone while the older of us began to shiver. We all headed toward the town square and went our separate ways from there. Isaac and James turned and started running toward our house, still laughing and scooping up snow to throw at each other, while Pippa headed in the opposite direction to the Overland house. I smiled at Jack, trying not to shiver too hard, and then turned to follow the boys but then Jack called out, "Tabitha!" I turned and saw him standing there with that crooked smile that I had come to love seeing on his face. "Want to go ice skating tomorrow?"

"That sounds like fun," I said, through chattering teeth. smiling back when his smiled widened.

Pippa called out, "Jack, hurry up, we'll be late for dinner!"

Jack nodded toward me, saying, "Go get warmed up," and then turned and jogged after his sister.

I watched him for a minute as he caught his sister up playfully and began carrying her back to their house. "Bye, Tabitha!" she called over his shoulder. I gave her a wave and turned to follow my brothers.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, I finished all of my housework as quickly as I could and ran out of the house toward the town square with my ice skates. "Be careful on the ice!" my mother had called after me. I sat down by the fire that was already burning in the square, there to keep people warm as they traveled between houses and merchants. It wasn't long before I saw Jack heading toward me from the opposite direction, giving me that same crooked smile. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Definitely," I said, picking up my skates. We headed out of the town and toward the lake in the woods. I looked sideways at him as we walked and his eyes flickered over to mine. I looked away quickly but felt the warmth of a blush on my cheeks. He chuckled a little, making me blush more. My mother had told me that when I started looking at boys as more than friends, I had to be careful and shouldn't spend too much time with them, but I loved spending time with Jack. This was the first time we'd ever done anything just the two of us and I don't know why that made me so nervous but it was hard to stop looking at him. I'd known him forever and yet this feeling was so different from how it felt when were younger kids.

"So... how's Pippa?" I asked, hoping a change of subject would make me look like less of a fool. He chuckled again and looked sideways at me, but then looked forward again, his face a little more serious.

"She's staying inside today," he said. "I think she got a cold from yesterday."

"Oh," I said quietly. We all knew that colds started out with sniffles and sneezes but could quickly develop into ailments more serious, especially in children around Pippa's age. "I hope she gets better soon," I said as the lake came into view.

"I do too," Jack said. He looked more serious than I'd ever seen him. It was clear that he loved his sister dearly and I thought of how I would feel if Isaac or James got sick. I knew I'd be worried and I probably wouldn't want to leave their side. I wondered why Jack wasn't home with her as we arrived at the edge of the lake and sat down to put our skates on.

"Jack," I said, and he paused in lacing his skate and looked up at me.

"Yes?"

I don't know if I frowned or my brow furrowed but his eyebrows raised slightly in what looked like concern. "Do you want to go home to be with Pippa? You didn't have to come out here to go skating with me, I'd understand if you want to go back."

He smiled a little and shook his head. "She'll be ok, my mother is taking good care of her. She told me to tell you hi, by the way. She wished she could come skating with us. Besides, I wouldn't want you out here skating alone, that's dangerous, and I told you I would come." He finished lacing his skate and stood up, reaching out to help me up.

"Are you sure?" I said, reaching for his hands.

"Yes. You can come over and see her for yourself this evening if you want. But for now, let's have some fun, ok?" He smiled and pulled me up. My skate caught in the high snow and I tumbled forward against him. He caught me, stumbling a bit himself but managing to stay upright. He smiled down at me and I blushed again, pushing myself off of him and heading onto the ice. He still held my hand as we stepped out onto it. "Careful," he said, stepping a bit ahead of me and testing out the ice. Because it had been so cold and so much snow had been falling, the ice was thick and didn't even crack.

We spent the day skating and slipping, laughing and pushing each other, me falling more often than him, but he was always there to help me back to my feet. He was much better at it than I was and eventually we were both exhausted. I tumbled one more time onto the ice and then laid back, looking up at the low gray clouds. My teeth had begun to chatter but he never seemed to get cold. Jack skated over and slipped down onto the ice next to me, much more gracefully than I had fallen. Our breath clouded above us and and his hand lightly touched mine. With our hands wrapped up warmly in our gloves, I barely felt it and wasn't sure it had happened at all but then his hand wrapped around mine. I smiled, still looking up at the sky and squeezed his hand gently. There seemed to be a warmth growing within me and when I turned my head to look at him and his eyes met mine, it seemed to grow stronger. My teeth stopped chattering and I must've had a very silly looking smile on my face, but his smile wasn't his regular joking, mischievous one. It seemed more sincere and suddenly I was too shy to look at him anymore, so I turned my gaze back upward.

Then, after a few seconds, I felt his lips press against my cheek. They were cool but a warmth melted through the cold on my skin and left my cheek feeling that same warmth that was surrounding my heart even after he pulled his lips away. I blushed again and turned to meet his eyes. His expression was hesitant, as though he was waiting for my reaction. I smiled and then he did too, squeezing my hand gently. I'm not sure how long we laid there on the ice, I only knew that I wanted to keep looking into his eyes. Eventually, I started to shiver again, and he said, "We should probably head back." He stood up and reached out to help me. "Do you still want to come see Pippa?" he asked.

The light of day wasn't fading yet, so I knew there was probably time. "Yes, I do," I said, and he helped me to my feet. We changed out of our skates and headed back to the town, turning toward his house.

People greeted us as we passed but I could hear them whispering behind us. I suppose it wasn't exactly normal for a young boy and girl to have spent the day alone away from the town but he reached out and took my hand again. I gave him a questioning look and he gave me a little nod. "Don't worry about them."

When we reached his house, Jack let go of my hand before his mother saw us, and she greeted me warmly. She took our coats and set them by the hearth to dry, and there was Pippa, wrapped up in probably all of the house's blankets. "Jack," she said enthusiastically, her voice a little scratchier than usual. She crawled out of the chair, dropping some of the blankets, and trotted over to him, hugging him around the waist and then she started coughing. "You're cold," she said accusingly. He lifted her gently and set her back in the chair, picking up the dropped blankets and wrapping them around her.

"And you have a cold," he said gently, pulling her chair a little closer to the fire.

"I'm getting better," she said resolutely. "Tabitha, tell Jack I'm -" but then she coughed again.

"Aw, poor Pip," I said, coming over to hug her.

"I'm really ok," she said "Did you have fun ice skating? You have to _promise_ to take me sometime!"

"I promise," both Jack and I said at the same time. We looked at each other with small smiles. Mrs. Overland offered me dinner as it started to grow darker outside, but I declined, saying that my own family would be expecting me. I gave Pippa another hug and headed for the door. "I'll walk you back," Jack said, following me. His mother told him to hurry back and we stepped back outside into the cold.

My teeth started chattering almost immediately and Jack put his arm around me as we walked. There weren't many people still out in the streets, but those few who saw us looked a bit surprised. "Jack," I said, concerned, "people will talk if they see us like this." Truthfully I didn't want him to remove his arm because that same warm feeling had started to grow inside me again.

"People will always talk," he said, "but it doesn't matter. You being happy matters."

As I seemed to be doing quite frequently, I blushed, and we walked in silence back to my house. I went to open the door but he stopped my hand, saying "Wait." I looked at him, confused, but he wrapped his arms around me in a close embrace. I hesitated in surprise but the hugged him back. When we pulled away, he said, "Stay warm."

"You too," I said and then headed into my house, glancing back to see him walking away before shutting the door.


	3. Chapter 3

For the next week we saw each other almost every day, though we didn't go ice skating again. We were waiting to keep our promise to Pippa. She was getting better, Jack told me, and I went over to visit her a few times, sneaking her a few more pastries. Her mother probably wouldn't approve of the sweets I was giving her because it probably wouldn't help her health, but she got over her cold with no dangerous complications arising. Still, her mother wanted to keep her inside for a few days.

A week and a half passed and suddenly the weather began to warm up. A lot of the snow metled and our outside antics turned from snowball fights to playing ball and hopscotch. However, with the warmer weather and the end of winter drawing near, both I and Jack had more chores to do. Some of the animals were coming out of their long winter sleep so there was more meat to cook. It still wasn't warm enough to grow anything because the ground was still frozen, but my mother began to prepare slightly bigger meals for us which meant that I spent more and more time inside, helping her. I still got to see Jack and the other kids every couple of days, but more often than not I had to stay in until dark.

Jack would come back from hunting trips or wood cutting and often stop at my house, knocking at our door. My mother began to become a bit suspicious about him stopping by so often, but she was also rather fond of Jack because he offered to help my father and James and Isaac with hunting and finding firewood. He and I didn't get to see each other alone anymore, so there was none of that holding hands or him kissing my cheek, but I still got that warm feeling whenever I saw him. When he stopped by, I sometimes handed him another pastry for him to deliver to Pippa, whom I didn't get to see almost at all. The first time I'd gone to hand him one, the small bun wrapped in a bit of cloth, he looked carefully over my shoulder before catching my hand in both of his and kissing it before accepting the pastry. I had blushed while starting to shiver from the cold outside the door, and I didn't know what it was about him but sometimes I just couldn't get proper words out. Through chattering teeth all I could say was, "Jackson Overland, your hands are too cold." I tried to smile and he laughed, so I knew he wasn't offended.

He continued to kiss my hand every time I was able to sneak a pastry for Pip, though we didn't have them all the time and Jack stopped by nearly every day. I was disappointed when I didn't have a pastry to offer him, though I don't like to admit it, more for my sake then Pippa's. When I could though, I gave him two so he could have one as well. He told me that Pippa had begun to lose a couple of her baby teeth and probably would have a hard time eating the pastries anymore, but I instructed Jack on how to warm them over a fire to soften them up for her. It seemed to work pretty well, and as the weather warmed up even more, sometimes she'd come visit with her brother. She would always whisper a "thank you," to me, very quietly since I'd told her that it was our little secret.

I did learn though that it hadn't stayed a secret. I visited the Overland house occasionally when I could get away from mine. One day when I was over, helping Jack's mother prepare a meal, Pippa was running around between us and Jack. "Mother, I'm hungry!" she said.

"I know you are, Pippa, but you can't eat yet, you'll spoil your appetite for dinner," Mrs. Overland said. She looked sideways are me while she continued chopping vegetables and spoke still to Pippa. "Besides, it seems as though you've been spoiled enough already, hmm?"

I blushed in embarrassment and shrugged apologetically, ready to take whatever sort of reprimand she had, but she nudged my shoulder gently to show that she wasn't too angry. Then she turned to look at Pippa. "But you know, if you eat too many sweets, Pippa, your teeth will go bad. You wouldn't want that to happen now, would you?"

Pippa came over and hugged me around the middle on the side opposite her mother. She peeked out and said, "But I like the sweet pastries that Tabitha gives me."

I knelt down to her level. "No, she's right, Pippa, you'd better listen to your mother."

"See? Tabitha agrees with me," said Mrs. Overland. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jack rolling his eyes as he set out plates on the table.

Pippa frowned, pursing her lips in an adorable pout. "But you're the one who gives me the sweets! They won't make my teeth go bad!" she said.

I looked at her for a moment and then said, "Show me a smile, Pip. Come on, or I'll have to tickle you." I reached my hands toward her belly and she giggled, smiling wide. There were a few spaces where she'd lost her baby teeth and new ones were starting to take their place. "Ahh, mhm, I see," I said in a very professional manner.

"Wha-, wha-?" Pippa asked, her mouth still open.

"Jack, come look at this," I said, raising my eyebrows at him. He nodded and came over, kneeling next to me and inspecting Pippa's mouth. "It seems important, wouldn't you agree, Jack?"

He nodded, rubbing his chin as though deep in thought. "Why, yes, Tabitha, you're most definitely correct."

"Whaaaa-?" Pippa continued.

I took her hands and said very seriously, "It is very important that you don't eat anymore sweet pastries for a while, Pippa. You've lost baby teeth and you'll lose more, which isn't bad, but if you keep eating sweets, your new teeth will go bad before they're even all in." She clapped her hands over her mouth in fright.

"Really?" she whispered.

Jack nodded solemnly. "Really. But you can still have a sweet every once in a while, just not as much as Tabitha's been giving you," he said.

"Oh, don't you try to blame this on me, Jack," I said, giving him a playful shove that knocked him off balance. Pippa giggled and jumped on top of him. I straightened up, still looking at him. "I've been giving _you_pastries too, haven't I?" Pippa's eyes widened and she looked at Jack in surprise.

"You've been getting them too?" He nodded and laughed and she hit his chest saying, "Jack's teeth are going to go bad!"

"We'll just see," he said. "I'll make you a deal - I won't eat anymore sweets for a while if you don't, ok?" He held out his hand to shake on it.

She looked at him dubiously and then grabbed his hand, "Ok. But _sometimes_ we can have one, right?"

He nodded and ruffled her hair. "Only if Tabitha makes them," he said, smiling at me. I didn't understand how he could get me so flustered and tongue-tied so easily so I turned to continue helping his mother with the meal.

The conversation eventually turned to other things, including the recent warm weather. Jack's mother mentioned that soon the flowers would begin to bloom if the weather kept warming up like this. Pippa ran over to window and stood up on her tiptoes to look out, while I told her mother how much I loved the first flowers of spring. "I just love to see all of the colors after the white and gray winter," and we shared a smile.

"Aw, come on," Jack said teasingly, "winter's not all that bad."

"That's because you, Jackson, don't have to worry about keeping a family fed and warm," she said, gesturing to him and Pippa with a cooking spoon. Her tone was joking though.

"I'm sure Jack helps out, doesn't he, Mrs. Overland?" I asked. I knew he spent time with his father just as Isaac and James did with ours. Jack made a show of throwing more firewood into the blaze in the hearth and stoking it so that the flames roared and crackled.

"Oh, I suppose he does, then," she said with a joking reluctance. "But I'll still be glad for the spring and the flowers. They do certainly bloom prettily here, I love to have bouquets of them to light up the room," she said.

Under his breath and masked by the roar of the fire, Jack said, "They're not the only pretty things that light up a room." I glanced over at him, not sure I'd heard him right, but he gave me that crooked smile and his eyes sparkled. I felt myself blush as I turned to continue chopping vegetables, grateful that Jack's mother had been moving a pot at the time and hadn't heard. I felt as though I ought to say something to break the moments of silence that followed but I couldn't think of anything to say and I could just barely hear Jack chuckling over the crackling of the flames.

It was Pippa who broke the silence, finally turning from the window to give me and Jack an accusing look. "Flowers are nice, but you _promised_ to take me ice skating!" she said indignantly.

"Aw, Pip," Jack said apologetically, "It's probably going to have to wait until next winter, I'm sorry."

"But whyyyyyyy?" she asked, running over and tugging on his sleeve.

I walked over and scooped her up in my arms. "Because the ice on the lake is starting to melt, and that means we can't skate anymore this season." She looked up at me with a disappointed frown.

Jack tickled her stomach and said, "But that doesn't mean we can't still have fun, Pippa!" She giggled and he tickled her more. "We can play hopscotch and tag and play ball and all sorts of things!"

She giggled more and when she caught her breath, she looked at him very seriously. "But you'd better keep your promise, Jackson Overland." She looked up at me with the same look. "You promised too, Tabitha!"

I laughed and hugged her. "Of course we'll keep our promise. Don't worry about that."


	4. Chapter 4

The next few days remained warm which kept both Jack and I busy, him with hunting and me inside, helping my mother prepare our house for spring. We really did intend to keep our promise to Pippa, even if it was next winter, but as luck would have it, after a few more days of warm weather, another bitter freeze fell over our town. The next morning, there was frost on the grass. I stayed inside for most of the day again, this time playing with my brothers as my father was letting them take a day off. They didn't much like being cooped up inside, but my mother was worried that the changes in the weather would make them both sick so we came up with ways to keep them entertained indoors. It mostly involved me crawling around on the floor with them, playing "horse" or whatever role they wanted me to fill. The way that Jack felt about Pippa, I felt about my brothers. I'd do anything for them, even if it meant letting them ride on my back all day.

When Jack stopped by that evening, I looked a mess, my hair all tangled and my clothes dirty. My mother almost didn't let me answer the door but I was already there, too glad to see him to worry about how I looked. As I opened the door, my brothers tugged on my arms, saying, "Tabitha, Tabitha, you have to play with us more!"

"I will in a second, you two," I laughed, and they went to entertain themselves until my return. Jack just looked at me, chuckling.

"You've had a busy day, I gather?" he said.

Suddenly a bit self-conscious in the presence of that charming half-smile, I tried to smooth out my hair and brush off my skirt. "Someone had to keep the boys company, with mother not letting them out today and all that," I mumbled, letting my hand stay in front of my eyes as I tried to fix my hair, too shy to look at him.

He chuckled again and leaned down to see around my hand, catching my eyes. "It's ok to be a mess," he said with a smile, "especially if it's because you've been playing with your brothers. As the older sister, it's your job to take good care of them." I let my hand drop and he straightened up. "Just like it's my job to take care of Pippa," he said proudly. "Speaking of, if it's still frozen like this tomorrow, want to take Pip skating? She can't wait, she's too excited to wait til next winter." He had that sparkle in his eye. I knew that making Pippa happy excited him even more than just the prospect of skating again. "I know you'll have chores and I'm sure I will too, but there'll be time after. My parents know she really wants to go, so they're more likely to let us out early. And you can bring James and Isaac too, I'm sure they'll be thrilled to get out of the house."

"They definitely will," I said. "My mother might let us go early too, if I tell her it's for Pippa and the boys' sake." I held my hand out the door a bit to see if the air was still frigid. It definitely was and as a chill wind swept in I started to shiver, my teeth chattering slightly. "Only if it stays this cold," I laughed, though it was a serious consideration given that we were trusting the ice on the lake to stay thick.

Jack caught my hand and cupped it between his hands, lifting them to his mouth to warm my fingers with his breath. I blushed a little and smiled and he looked over his hands at me. "Don't worry, Tabitha. You know I wouldn't let anything happen to Pippa, and I won't let anything happen to you either." I trusted those words, his eyes, his smile. I trusted Jack, so I knew everything would be ok. I nodded. "So, I'll see you tomorrow, then," he said, still holding my hand.

"Come by when you two are ready to head out. It will be fun."

"Yes, it will." He raised my hand to his mouth again, but instead of warming it, this time he kissed it, his lips cool against my skin. I still didn't understand why he could feel so cold on the outside but never seem to really get cold, but it didn't matter that much because I still enjoyed those kisses and the inner warmth they brought me. "Goodnight, Tabitha."

"Goodnight, Jack."

* * *

Sure enough when we woke up the next morning, the ground was covered in a layer of snow. I guess at the time, none of us really realized that it had to be warmer than frozen for snow to fall instead of hail, but it sure felt frozen outside. I hurried through my chores that morning so that I could be ready when Jack and Pippa came over, but there was still so much to do. With the weather being so fickle, my mother was having trouble figuring out what to cook and how much firewood to burn. The knock on our door came about midday.

When I opened the door, Pippa hugged me and shouted, "We're going skating!" Jack leaned in the doorway as I picked her up and spun her around.

"Yes, we are!" I hugged her and then said very seriously, "But, Pippa, I have to ask you for a favor."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Well, I know that Jack and I promised to take you skating. Is it ok if James and Isaac come too?"

She scrunched up her nose. "_Boys?_" She considered it for a moment and then sighed, "Yes, I guess they can come too." I hugged her again and set her down.

Jack ruffled her hair. "We're not ready to go just yet," I said, "The boys still have to stack firewood and I'm helping my mother clean up."

"Want us to wait?" Jack asked, but Pippa was tugging impatiently on his sleeve, trying to pull him in the direction of the lake.

I laughed. "No, no, you two go on ahead. We'll be there in half an hour or so."

"Ok, we'll see you soon," he said, taking my hand in his again, but he didn't kiss it since Pippa was there. For a minute we just looked at each other, each of us with a little smile. He squeezed my hand and then headed off with his little sister running ahead of him.

* * *

I didn't know then that I'd soon wish I'd held his hand for longer, looked into his eyes and told him to wait for us. I didn't know that I'd be wishing he had kissed my hand again, or my cheek, or my lips.

* * *

The boys and I finished our chores in about a half an hour and grabbed our skates. "Be careful on that ice, Tabitha!" she called after us. "Look after your brothers!"

"I will," I said, holding the door open for them as they rushed out past me.

We headed for the town square, where we would then turn and head off into the woods toward the little lake... but we never made it to the woods.


	5. Chapter 5

I heard her screaming before I saw her. "Help! Someone, help! Jack, he's-" Pippa stumbled into the square, losing her breath. She was still wearing her skates and I ran to catch her as she pitched forward, unable to keep her balance. People gasped and started to gather closer.

"Pippa, what is it, what's wrong?" I asked fearfully. She was out of breath from running and she had tears streaming down her face. "Pippa... where's Jack?"

"Jack," she gasped in between sobs, "We were, we were skating and..." she sobbed harder "and the ice cracked and-" People were suddenly in a frenzy, voices were raising. Isaac and James stood at my shoulder, looking scared.

"James, stay with Pippa," I commanded. "Isaac, go get mother and father, run!" They both looked to be in shock but James took Pippa's hand and sat next to her, and Isaac took off running toward our house while other people ran to the Overland house.

I leapt to my feet, dropping my skates, and ran faster than I ever had before. _We should've known the ice wasn't strong enough, we should've known,_ I thought to myself, but I forced the thoughts away. Everything was going to be ok, Jack was... Jack would be fine, nothing could happen to him, he was fine. Still, I ran faster.

I could hear people running behind me but I reached the lake first and when I saw the black hole in the ice, my blood ran as cold as the water. "Jack!" I screamed. Ice chunks were floating around the hole, still buffeted by the ripples, and a branch lay there too awkwardly by the water. I glanced around frantically, hoping I'd see him sitting on the shore in the snow, but he was nowhere. I started out onto the ice and someone behind me shouted, "Tabitha, no!" but I could only of think of Jack, disappearing into that black abyss in the ice. "JACK!" I screamed louder, tears started to seep from my eyes. I took a few more steps on the ice, ignoring the sickening cracking sound beneath my feet. "Jack, hold on, I'm co-" but several pairs of hands grabbed me and pulled me back to the shore. I screamed and fought against the people holding my arms while others spread out along the bank.

"Tabitha! Tabitha," came my father's voice. He threw his arms around my chest, restraining me. I only shouted louder.

"NO! JACK!" Adults tested the ice in different areas but everywhere they stepped, it cracked, and there was no sign of anyone struggling in the water. But that couldn't mean anything. I struggled to escape my father's grasp. If I could just get to the hole in the ice, he'd be there, I'd pull him out, it would be ok, he'd be fine, he'd- "JACK!" I shouted again.

People were starting to cry now. Jack's mother had collapsed in a fit of tears, and his father held her, deep sobs escaping his mouth too. My mother put her hand on my shoulder. "Tabitha, there's nothing we can-"

"NO!" I fought harder but my father held me tight. "JACK! HOLD ON!"

"Tabitha, we can't help him," he said, raising his voice to be heard over my shouting and crying. "Tabitha! We can't do anything! You can't go out there!" I was crying too hard to stand straight but still I fought against my father's arms.

My mother wrapped her arms around me too, her voice cracking as she too tried to hold back tears. "Tabitha... Jack's gone."

"NOOOOOOOO!" It was like all of the air had been pulled from my body and replaced with the lake water. It was my heart that had fallen through the ice. I could barely breathe and I lost my balance, my father's arms lowering me gently down to the ground as I sobbed.

* * *

I don't know how long I stayed there like that. The sky grew darker and people eventually started heading back to town, many huddled around Mr. and Mrs. Overland. "Tabitha," my father said eventually, "we need to leave." I shook my head, my eyes still fixed on the hole in the ice.

"Come home and let's get you warmed up," my mother said. I shrugged away from her touch, not even registering the feeling of being cold.

She must've given my father a look because he then picked me up and started to carry me back. I didn't want to go but I didn't have it in me to fight anymore. The tears on my face had dried and I felt as empty as the frozen night. As we passed through the square I heard people talking about going back to the lake to look for a body, and that it would be no use to do so until it thawed because otherwise it would just stay stuck under the ice. Even if they did recover his body, they were saying, it wouldn't be presentable enough to let anyone see and they'd have to just have a quiet burial. These words rang in my head but I couldn't make sense of anything.

As we turned down the road toward our house, it registered vaguely in my mind that I had no idea what had happened to my brothers and Pippa after I left them in the square. James and Isaac weren't at our house when we got back and my mother mentioned something about them staying with a neighbor. My father laid me in my bed and my mother brought me a bowl of hot broth but I couldn't do anything but sit there and look out my window at the moon. It was almost full, like it was mocking how empty I felt.

I don't remember if I slept or if I just kept looking out the window. I didn't leave my room the next day, though my mother still tried to get me to eat. Everything she brought felt too hot to me. The only thing that offered me any sort of comfort was letting my cheek rest against the window, the cool glass on my skin reminding me of Jack's kisses.


	6. Chapter 6

The day after, there was a memorial gathering in the town square. My mother told me that the weather had gotten even colder, so I'd need to dress extra warm. I rose from bed and dressed mechanically, wondering how I would be able to handle being outside, being around so many people. As we walked out the door, I saw that she'd made another plate of pastries. I took two and wrapped them, tucking them into my pocket.

Most people were already there, wearing black under their winter cloaks. The weather had remained frigid and I could only think bitterly that if it had been like this before, the ice wouldn't have been so thin. The town gathered close around the fire while people said nice words, but they didn't get it. Jack wouldn't have wanted this. He wouldn't have wanted all this sorrow and these solemn faces. He would've wanted us to smile and try to find happiness anyway. "I'm sorry, Jack," I whispered, my eyes fixed on the fire, "I can't smile, not now." No one heard me over the fire and the people talking and that was just as well.

I slowly looked around the circle of people and found Jack's parents, and Pippa. Pippa's face was red and tear-streaked and her lip trembled like she was barely holding back tears. When the gathering was over, I called out to her as people began to leave. My parents looked at me and I shook my head. "I'll be home in a minute," I said. They looked at each other and then nodded to me, taking James and Isaac with them as they started walking back.

Pippa came over to me slowly, her parents staying a few steps back. She stared at her feet until she reached me and I knelt down. "Hey," I said quietly, "hey, Pippa, here." I opened my arms and she fell into them, suddenly sobbing. I pulled her close and fought back the tears that were forming in my own eyes. "Aw, Pippa, sshh, it's ok, it's-"

"We shouldn't have gone!" she burst out, pulling out of my hug and looking up at me. "It was my fault! I made him take me skating! It was my fault!"

"Oh, Pippa, no!" I said, pulling her close again. She cried harder and tears began streaming down my cheeks too. "Pippa, no, it wasn't your fault, it wasn't."

"He saved me," she mumbled against my cloak. "He saved me, the ice was cracking and I was scared and he... ," she swallowed, "he said it would be like hopscotch. That it would be fun. He pulled me off the ice and everything was ok but then-" she was overcome by tears. "It was my fault he fell in the ice!" she cried.

_You know I wouldn't let anything happen to Pippa,_ Jack's words rang in my head. I hugged her and rocked her gently. Somehow, knowing that Jack had saved her made it hurt a little less. I still could barely stand knowing that he was - I couldn't even think the word - but I knew that he wouldn't have regretted it, if it meant that Pippa lived. "He loved you so much, Pippa, and it wasn't your fault," I whispered around my tears. "He promised he would take care of you. It wasn't your fault, and you know he wouldn't want to see you so sad." My voice cracked but I was trying to be strong for her sake. I wasn't doing well, but I was trying. She kept crying though. I held her and for a while, we both just cried. After a few minutes though, I pulled away a little and said, "Now, Pippa, Jack wouldn't want us to cry so much, would he?" She looked at me through teary eyes and mumbled, "uh-uh" and I reached into my pocket. "So let's not cry right now, ok? Look, I brought something for you."

I unwrapped the sweet pastries and handed one to her. "B-but, J-jack,-" she started, but another sob hit her. "J-jack said my teeth would g-go bad," she said, looking at the pastry with tears still running down her cheeks.

I wiped away some of them and gently tilted her chin up with my forefinger so she would look at me. "Jack also said that it was ok to have one once in a while, didn't he?" She just looked at me for a moment. "Didn't he tell you that, Pippa?" She choked back another sob and nodded, a little smile forming on her face. I tried to smile too. "So, come on, then," I said with a little laugh that sounded out of place with my grief-stricken voice, "let's eat these." She nodded and we both ate our pastries quietly as snow began to fall around us. _I wish you could have one too,_ I thought, looking up at the sky and picturing Jack the way he stood at my door so many times.

We finished our pastries and I gave Pippa another long hug. "You'd better go back inside with your parents," I said, finally releasing her. "We wouldn't want you getting too cold." She nodded and turned to go, but then turned back and threw her arms around me.

"I love you, Tabitha," she whispered.

"I love you too, Pippa," I said, tears starting up in my eyes again. "Now, run along home."

She walked back to her father while her mother took a few steps closer to me where I still knelt in the falling snow. "Tabitha..." She knelt down beside me. "Are you going to be ok?" I nodded and tried to put a smile on my face, tried to believe that I would be ok. I got to my feet and she took my hand. "You meant a lot to him, Tabitha. Just like you told Pippa. He'd want to see you happy."

I heard his voice in my head again. _People will always talk, but it doesn't matter. You being happy matters._ I bit my lip and swallowed another sob while Mrs. Overland hugged me. "You're welcome at our house anytime, ok?"

I managed to whisper, "Thank you," and then she turned and walked away with her husband and daughter. The square was empty now, I was alone, and the fire was dying. I had told my parents that I would be home soon, but home was not where my feet carried me. I didn't even realize where I was going until I was once again standing on the edge of the lake.

In the moonlight, I could see the black hole in the ice. After two nights of the bitter cold, it should've frozen over again, I thought vaguely, but that wasn't important. I sat down on the shore of the lake, pulling my knees up to my chest, cold, damp snow seeping into my clothes. There was something else that seemed different, too, but I couldn't quite place it. I stared out at the white expanse. Had there been a branch on the ice there two days ago? I tried to picture it. A tree branch, one end shaped like a hook. It had been laying next to the hole in the ice... hadn't it? Had I just imagined it? It wasn't there now, but nothing could've gone out onto the ice and moved it. It didn't matter anyway.

I put it out of my mind and tried to focus on happier memories: Jack skating circles around me, me falling into his arms when I tripped, and then laying next to him on the ice. Jack holding my hand for the first time. Jack kissing my cheek. My tears started up again, and I glared up at the moon. It was so heartless and uncaring, hanging up there in the sky like that. The bitter, damp chill was starting to cling to my skin now and seep into my bones, but I didn't even notice it. I looked back out at the hole in the ice and couldn't take my eyes away from it. There was his voice in my memories again, saying, _Don't worry, Tabitha,_ - a sob tore through me - _you know I wouldn't let anything happen to Pippa,_ - another sob, my tears unchecked - _and I won't let anything happen to you either._ There was nothing left but the ice and my tears. At some point, I must've started to shiver, but I didn't notice it until my teeth began to chatter. Even then, I didn't care. The hole in the ice had swallowed up Jack and had taken my heart too.

It was the Winter of 1709 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and it was bitter cold.

That winter, Jack Overland died.

And, sitting there on the lake shore on the coldest night of the season, I did too.


	7. Chapter 7

The only thing I could see was the Moon, and it was as though I was coming out of a very deep sleep. I could hear words though I could tell they weren't being said out loud, and I didn't really understand what I was hearing. _You are chosen, Tabitha._ My body felt a little warmer and I knew that was strange but I didn't remember why. _You know the pain of tragedy in childhood, when childhood should be full of hope and wonder and good dreams._ I was still not fully awake it seemed. Tragedy in childhood? There was something I wasn't remembering. _There are those who have been chosen to guard Hope, Wonder, and Dreams but there must someone to guard Memories. This is your task, Tabitha. You will be the keeper of memories, so that when people need to remember the feelings of joy that come in childhood, you will be there to help them. You are a Guardian. Your name will be Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy._ Tooth fairy? What on earth could that mean? But suddenly I knew, I knew what I was being called to do. Memories, guarding the memories of children, and the memories were stored in... baby teeth. It stopped sounding silly and started to make sense. I don't know why, but I trusted the Moon. I knew what I had to do.

The next moment it felt like I was taking my first breath of air. I gasped and sat up. All my joints felt sore and there was a cold feeling in my bones that was slowly receding. It was morning, the sun hanging low in the sky. There was grass around me, and new flowers just beginning to bloom, and in front of me... a lake, a lake that had been frozen the last time I saw it.

_Jack!_ Everything that had happened suddenly came flooding back to me. Jack had fallen through the ice, he was - I still couldn't even think the word, but what had happened to me? The memorial service, giving Pippa a pastry... and then I went to the lake. I sat in the snow until my teeth were chattering. Had I fallen asleep? It had been deathly cold out and I didn't remember going home after that... or going anywhere. Had I... had I died?

I looked down at the grass between my fingers and gasped. My arm was covered with feathers, blue feathers - both arms - and my legs too! I looked down at my body and the lush growth of feathers all over it. No clothes, blue and green feathers. I reached up to feel for my hair and felt instead a crest of feathers. I sat in shock for a moment and lunged forward toward the lake to see my reflection but instead of falling forward on my knees I heard a slight whirring noise and I cried out as I was lifted off the ground. I almost tumbled face-forward into the lake but something kept me up in the air as I slowly floated over the water. My jaw dropped at what I saw. It couldn't have been my reflection.

What I saw was a beautiful... fairy? Feathers everywhere, green and teal and blue, with a feather crest and tail, purple eyes, and colorful wings whirring behind her. I raised a hand to my face and so did the reflection. I ran a hand down my stomach, feeling feathers, and the reflection did the same. Slowly I turned my head to look over my shoulder and there behind me were the wings, holding me up. I was flying.

I was in absolute shock and suddenly I plunged face first into the water. I shouted and shivered, crawling back out of the lake and onto the grassy bank. I looked up at the sky, thinking about what I had heard the Moon say... I thought it had been a dream but I felt the same call, the same purpose that the Moon had been talking about. Slowly it came together in my head. I was sort of like a hummingbird. I sat up and looked over my shoulder at the wings attached to my back. They weren't bird-like, like the rest of me, but instead they were translucent and iridescent, like in the stories I'd been told about fairies. I had no idea how to use them so I just closed my eyes and tried to imagine what muscles a bird would use to move their wings. I became aware of muscles in my back - muscles that I had never felt before - moving and contracting and slowly the wings started to flit back and forth. Water drops sprayed off of them and I waved them until it seemed they were dry. I took a deep breath and stood up, deciding that I would try to just lift myself off the ground. After a moment of focusing, my wings - it felt so strange to call them mine - began to whir again and slowly my feet lifted off the ground.

If anyone had been there to see it, I'm sure I had the face of a fool with a child's grin on my face and my eyes wide. I cheered and tried to fly in different directions. I was unsteady at first but after almost crash-landing again a few times, I got the hang of it and it was surprisingly easy. I could move quite quickly, and I could hover easily. I laughed as I flew around the edge of the lake. It came together in my head almost unbidden: with this sort of form, I'd be able to go around the world doing... what I was supposed to. Collecting teeth. I had to... keep them for children because they had memories in them, important memories. Where would I keep them? At this thought, I felt something drawing me upward, an urge to fly high into the sky, and I began but then I stopped and turned, looking back at the lake. _Jack..._ I thought. In my excitement, I'd forgotten about it.

I drifted back down to the bank. It was the beginning of Spring, the ice on the lake was melted. Jack's body would be in the lake but I didn't see it - maybe they'd gotten it from the lake already? But there was still ice on the edges of the bank, all the flowers and grass newly grown. Winter was barely over. Would they really have gotten it already? And then it registered - what about me? What had happened, did they know I was gone?

I lifted off the ground again and darted back to my hometown. It hit me that it might be strange for them to see the creature I'd become, so I touched down just outside of town and slowly walked toward the square, keeping to the shadows. There were all the same people I'd grown up around... and there was my father, walking toward the square from our house with my brothers. "Father!" I cried out instinctively, "James! Isaac!"

They didn't turn to me though. It was like they hadn't even heard me. No one around me turned to me. I'd called out so loudly though. I stepped out of the shadows and repeated their names, walking toward them, strange appearance be damned. People walked right past me, not even looking. "What's... what's going on?" I whispered to myself. I walked right up to my father and reached for his arm - but my hand went through through him. I gasped and stumbled back. "Father...?" I whispered again, and then louder, "Father, look at me." He didn't even flinch.

Isaac however looked up in my direction. I caught his eyes and whispered, "Can you see me, Isaac?"

James looked at his brother and then looked toward me, and asked Isaac what he was looking at. Isaac looked right at me again and then shook his head. "Nothing, I guess," he said. My breath came heavily as panic rose within me, but then my father started talking.

The town leader, Nathaniel Brown, had met my father in the square. "It's been weeks, John," he said to my father. "I know you don't want to think it, but it's time we have a service for Tabitha and put her memory to rest."

"What?" I gasped.

"No!" my father said at the same time. "She's just missing, Nathan, they... no one has found a body. She's just missing." He looked like tears were forming in his eyes and James and Isaac looked up at him. James reached out and took my father's hand.

"John, she's been missing for weeks and those weeks were the harshest of this Winter. You know as well as I do - she couldn't have survived." Nathan sighed and put his hand on my father's shoulder. "When Jack Overland died, you saw what happened to her. She was distraught." My father's eyes searched the ground and his mouth opened as he looked for something to say, but words failed him. "The grief probably got to her. You said the last time you saw her was after the service in the square, right? She never returned to your house. It's likely that the grief got to her and she wandered off."

"No," my father said again, his eyes suddenly hard and glaring at Nathaniel. "No, that wouldn't happen, she wouldn't."

"John," Nathan said louder, "I don't like this anymore than you do. Do you think it's easy for our town to lose two children, especially so close together? But she's gone and we need to honor her memory so we can go back to our lives."

"No one's found a body!" my father repeated.

"They never found Jack Overland's body either," Nathan said, quietly again. My father deflated, looking sad but resigned. Nathan held my father's arm. "Tomorrow night, ok, John?"

Father nodded. "Tomorrow night," he said.

"I'll stop by your house later this evening to speak to you and your wife about details, ok?"

My father nodded again, then walked away, calling the boys after him. Isaac turned toward me again, looking right at me, but then shook his head as though to shake away a dream and followed his brother and father.

The knowledge settled into my heart. I was invisible. And the town thought me dead. It had to be so, so that I could do the job I'd been assigned. I looked at the ground, sadness and confusion overwhelming me.

But they hadn't found Jack's body. And it wasn't in the lake... Had he survived somehow? No, it was impossible. And if he had, he'd have returned to town. Maybe a bear had gotten to his body before anyone in the town... the thought was too gruesome and I pushed it away. Suddenly my thoughts turned to Pippa. Knowing that no one could see me anyway, I turned and lifted off the ground, flying to the Overland house. Pippa was just walking out with her mother.

Pippa's face was sad. The radiant joy she'd always had was gone. She'd looked better the last time I saw her and I wonder what had happened since then that could make her so sad. Then I remembered. Everyone thought I was dead too. Maybe the loss of Jack and me so close together had been too hard on her. It seemed pretentious to believe that I could've meant that much to her, but she'd told me she loved me the last time I saw her. "Come on, Pippa," Mrs. Overland said, holding her daughter's hand and heading out of town toward a meadow that we all played in during the summer. "Let's go see the new wildflowers, huh? They'll be so pretty. You remember how you love wildflowers." Pippa nodded but her eyes were still on the ground as they walked slowly. Her mother squeezed her hand. "I'll tell you what, I'll make you a wildflower crown, ok? You always liked those. You'll look like a beautiful little fairy."

"James told me that fairies aren't real," Pippa said dejectedly.

"What?" Mrs. Overland said. "Now, look, Pippa," she said, kneeling down in front of her daughter and taking both of her hands. "Boys say a lot of things and they're going to tell you things that will make you sad, like that fairies aren't real or that St. Nicholas doesn't bring Christmas presents, or that the Sandman doesn't give you good dreams, but don't listen to boys. They think that by not believing these things, it will make them stronger." Pippa looked up at her mother with tears in her eyes. "But Pippa, you listen to your heart," she said, tapping on her daughter's chest. "You believe what you believe, and no one can tell you different." Pippa bit her lip but nodded. "Now, let's go see the flowers, ok?" Pippa gave a sniffle and a small smile formed on her face as her mother straightened up and they began to walk away.

"Oh, Pippa," I sighed, hoping that she would be ok. As I spoke, she whipped around and stared right at me. My eyes widened. "Pippa?" I whispered.

"What is it, Pip?" Mrs. Overland said, tugging on her daughter's hand gently.

"A fairy," Pippa whispered in awe.

"You can see me?" I asked quietly. She seemed too stunned to respond.

Mrs. Overland chuckled and pulled Pippa along. "Come on, dear, let's go to the meadow." Pippa followed behind her but kept looking over her shoulder at me.

I began to tear up, wanting to follow and talk to her, but I knew I couldn't stay. I was in this form for a reason and I had a job to do. I let her walk away though all I wanted to do was scoop her up in my arms and hug her.

The call to fly upward was still there, so that's what I did.


	8. Chapter 8

I didn't know where I was going but it felt like my body did so I just let the feeling inside me guide me. I flew very high, through a layer of clouds that left moisture on my feathers but it quickly flitted away as I flew higher. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by intricate towers, somewhat like bird cages - though I'd never seen one for myself, I'd heard about them in story books and had been told that the wealthier people across the sea had them. The whole place glowed with the soft light of the sun and when I looked down, I gasped.

I should have only seen a layer of clouds but it seemed like I had stepped into another world. There were grassy hills and a pond leading up to a wall, with a big space on it. It looked like a painter had started working on it with splashes of color here and there but no definite shapes. I didn't know how I'd gotten to this place or how it could exist up here in the sky. I fly straight toward my left until I seemed to pass the last of the towers, and then looking below me, I could see the cloud layer again - though when I turned to look for the palatial place, there was nothing but clouds. Experimentally I flew back the way I'd come and without any warning I found myself surrounded by the tower again.

_This is the Tooth Palace. It is your headquarters where you will keep the teeth of the children of the world,_ I heard the voice of the Moon say. My gaze was pulled toward a wall in one of the bird cage towers and it was similar to the honeycomb in a beehive. There were millions of spaces, some full with small tubes with pictures of faces on them. _Your fairies have already begun the work, and from here on out, they will help you. Finding the teeth of children in the world will come instinctively to you once you being your work._

_Fairies?_ I thought, looking around. Were there more like me, feathered with fairy wings? But then, as I looked closer at the intricate lacing of the bird cage towers, I began to notice little feathery shapes on them, like birds roosting. I flew over to one and saw that they were smaller than birds - about the size of real hummingbirds. "Um... hello?" I whispered. There was no response. I reached out with my forefinger and gently stoked the feathers of one of the little creatures, whispering again, "Hello?" The little feathery shape unfolded slowly but instead of a hummingbird's face there a was a sweet little face of what could really only be described as a fairy - though with a long beak similar to that of a hummingbird. Though their size and shape was closer to the build of a hummingbird than mine, it was almost a miniature version what I had become.

When it saw me, a smile grew on its tiny features and it began to chirp happily. All around me in the towers, tons of the tiny little shapes began to unfold as though waking from a deep slumber. As they all saw me, they leapt from their perches and flew over to me with tiny wings that looked just like mine until I was surrounded by a flock of happily chirping fairies. "Hello," I said once more, smiling and turning in a circle, taking in the sight of all of them. They were all smiling and seemed to be quite happy. Several of them flew closer to me and grabbed my fingers, tugging me over to another one of the towers, this one filled with things that looked like upside down water pumps. When they were sure I was looking, one of the fairies pushed down on a lever and out of the cute came a small penny. The fairy picked it up and pointed downward to where the land was, and then opened it's mouth and gestured toward its teeth, and then then shook the penny for emphasis. The understanding came into my head that when we collected teeth, we were supposed to leave a penny in its place.

_As a guardian,_ the Moon's voice said in my head again, _your power depends on the children of the world believing in you. Because the fairies have already been working, there are many children who already believe that a Tooth Fairy exists. Leaving a gift in place of the tooth will perpetuate this belief and help it spread. With your direction, you and the fairies will continue this work. As you do and more children start to believe in you, your power will increase so that you can collect the memories of more and more children of the world._ The tiny fairies then flitted over to the honeycomb wall I'd seen before and pointed to the tubes that had faces on the ends. _These containers hold the teeth that the fairies have already collected. The faces on them are the faces of the children that they came from. When you're here in the Tooth Palace, you and your fairies can open them, but once the tubes are removed from here, only a touch from that person can open them, so when a person needs to remember a happy memory from their childhood, you must get them to touch the container in some way. The memory will come into their head that way. You have been chosen to be the Guardian of Memories. You will guard the most important memories of childhood and in doing this, help protect the children of the world from darkness and despair._

I nodded though I wasn't sure the voice of the Moon could see me, and slowly information began flooding into my head - locations and types of teeth and the children from which they came. "Well," I said, looking around at the flock of millions of hundreds of tiny fairies, "I suppose we'd better get started." They began to chirp happily again, many taking pennies from the spouts and flying off right away into the clouds while others hovered around me. I understood that they were waiting for direction from me, and so I started reciting the information that was in my head and one by one they took pennies and flew off. I went over to the spout and took a few pennies myself, then letting my mind focus on a group of teeth that seemed to all be in a certain area.

It was a country that I'd never been to before and didn't even know the name of but again, something seemed to guide me to where the teeth were. I found it quite easy to slip into the houses of sleeping children, though it felt extremely strange to be doing so. I found that many children had put their teeth under their pillows, so I took the teeth and left a penny in their place. After taking about six teeth, I felt compelled again to fly straight upward and found myself in the Tooth Palace again. I watched the little fairies flit over to the wall of tooth containers, pulling certain ones out, laying teeth inside and then putting the tube-like container back. I mimicked their actions, think that they since they had done this before, it must've been the right thing to do. I found the containers for the six children whose teeth I had gathered. As I took each one, it opened up for me and inside was a cushion with indentations for each tooth. Some containers already had teeth in them while others were brand new with no spaces filled.

As I worked, the task seemed to become more and more naturally. Many of the fairies did the same thing I was doing before taking another penny and flying off again. Others hovered around me waiting for more direction, which I readily provided as it seemed to be constantly flowing into my mind. When I thought about it logically from the standpoint of a fifteen year old girl who had only weeks ago been living a normal life in a colony of the new world, it seemed entirely absurd, but when I let these thoughts melt away, it felt as though everything I was doing was what I was meant to do. Days passed in this manner. I found that I rarely needed to rest and that there were always more teeth to collect. The fairies constantly flitted around me, chirping happily whenever they were close to me and I began to affectionately refer to each one as "Baby Tooth" which seemed to make sense if I was the Tooth Fairy. I began to feel joy at every new tooth that was collected, noticing the differences in ones that had been more well taken care of than others. It was fun, and I grew happier with every tooth I collected. I could tell that the belief in the Tooth Fairy was starting to spread, and to see the joy that came to each child who found a penny in the place of their tooth made me so glad that I was the Guardian of Memories, as the Moon had called it.

One day though, I looked up and saw a colorful light shining through the sky. Something in me pulled me toward it and I understand that I was supposed to follow it. Some of the fairies followed me while others continued to work, taking pennies and disappearing, coming back with teeth. I could tell that the light was leading me North, but what I would find on the other end, I couldn't guess.


	9. Chapter 9

I followed the lights north for a very long time. The fairies who were following me seemed to know what was going on but I was still in the dark. I passed over oceans, mountains, forests, farther and farther north until The entire landscape was just white. It snowed in some areas and I found it easier to fly up above the cloud cover, keeping my wings dry more easily and staying warmer. It was very cold - even more so above the clouds than under them - but the energy of flying, the rapid movement of my wings kept me fairly warm.

Suddenly, looming out of the white landscape was a huge building, tucked into a mountain side. It was bigger than any of the workhouses we had near our town in the Massachusetts Colony and there was smoke rising from various chimneys. The lights seemed to be coming from this building, from a point right over a large curved section of roof, so that's where I flew to. There was an opening in the roof, looking down into a large room. It seemed like the room went down several stories but at the top there was a balcony around it. There was a large spherical structure that was slowly turning and next to it on a platform stood three figures. There was a large man wearing red, a smaller person who seemed to be entirely gold-colored, and a very tall animal of some sort.

I hovered by the opening in the roof. The fairies flew right past me, ignoring my whispers of "wait, stop!" and flew down to where the three figures were standing. They seemed happy to see the man in red and the gold figure. The animal-like figure seemed confused, but the man looked up toward the roof opening.

"Hello, new Guardian!" he shouted up to me. Instinctively, I ducked out of sight but peeked back over the edge of the opening. "It is ok, please come in!" he called. Now the other two figures were looking up toward the roof too. I slowly moved over the opening again, looking down into the building. "Come, come," the man said with a laugh, "We do not bite. Well, maybe Bunny, but..." The animal figure reached over and smacked the man's arm. _Bunny?_ I thought. I let myself fly slowly downward to the platform they were standing on. With how my wings were used to moving, it felt unnatural to be flying so slowly but I was a bit scared. The fairies flew back up to me, tugging on my fingertips and leading me down to the landing.

Up close, I could see that the animal figure did indeed seem to be a large bunny standing on its hind legs. He was much more intimidating than any bunny I'd ever seen. The smaller figure looked like a man, but no bigger than a child. He was wearing strange robes that seemed to have the texture of sand, and was entirely the color of a beach at sunset from head to toes - toes that were actually hovering a few inches above the ground. He wasn't nearly as scary-looking as the bunny. The tall man had a long white beard and was wearing a bright red top and black pants. He looked a lot like... Well, I thought it was silly of me, but he looked like the man in the stories of... "St. Nicholas?" I asked quietly, thinking that I must be losing my mind. But then again, after all that had happened to me in the last couple days, would it really be so strange?

The man let out another booming laugh as my fairies guided me down to the landing. My feet hit the cool floor and my wings slowed down but didn't stop - I was still nervous, I think, and I wanted to be able to fly away quickly if I needed to. Everyone was smiling at me but it was still strange. "Nicholas St. North, that is my name," the man said jovially, "but here I am mostly called North. I deliver presents to the children of the world on Christmas." My eyes must've been very wide. My mother had told me stories of St. Nicholas and we'd gotten presents around Christmas time but I never thought I'd meet him - and he spoke with a strange accent that I'd never heard before but of course how he talked was never mentioned in the stories. "This," he said with a grand gesture around the room, "is my workshop. My helpers - the yetis and the elves = and I make the toys." He gestured to the bunny and said, "This is Bunny-"

"E. Aster Bunnymund," the bunny said, cutting in, stepping forward and looking at me. "I'm the Easter Bunny." He also had a strange accent, but that wasn't the strangest thing.

I cocked my head to the side and raised an eyebrow in confusion. We celebrated Easter in our town but I'd never heard anything about a bunny of Easter. The man called North laughed again, clapping the bunny on the back and saying, "Bunny, where she is from they do not yet believe in you."

"Right," said the bunny, who, I guess, was just called Bunny for short. He looked a little sad but then said, "But they will soon!"

North smiled and then gestured toward the floating, gold-colored man, and at this point things were starting to make sense in my head. If the man was St Nicholas, who delivered presents on Christmas, then... Pippa's mother had mentioned the name to her when I saw them heading toward the meadow. "This is..." North started.

"The Sandman," I said, looking at him. He smiled and bowed though he didn't say anything.

"Yes, Sanderson Mansnoozie," North said. "But usually we call him Sandy. As you probably know, Sandy gives good dreams to people. He is the Guardian of Dreams. Bunny is the Guardian of Hope, and I," he said proudly, standing up a little straighter, "am the Guardian of Wonder."

A memory flickered into my head. _There are those who have been chosen to guard Hope, Wonder, and Dreams,_ the Moon had told me, _but there must someone to guard Memories. This is your task, Tabitha... You are a Guardian._ I looked at them all watching me. "You're all Guardians?" I asked.

"Yes, and so are you," North said. "What is your name, child?"

"Tabi-" I started but then I remembered what the moon had told me. _Your name will be Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy._ "My name is Toothiana," I said slowly. "I am... the Tooth Fairy, the Guardian of Memories." I hadn't known what to say but the words seemed to come out on their own. "When children lose their baby teeth, my fairies and I collect them, leaving gifts in their place. Their teeth hold the most important memories of childhood, so I keep them at my Tooth Palace so that when they need to remember their childhood later on, we can help them." I was a little more confident now, though the words seemed to have been more the Moon's than mine. "Did the Moon choose all of you, too?"

North smiled. "Yes, Man in Moon chooses all Guardians. He has done a very pretty job with you," he said and the others nodded.

"Are there more Guardians?" I asked.

"Not right now, no," he said. "It has just been us for a while, but I suppose Manny decided that it would be good for us to have help."

"Help?"

North walked over to me, took my shoulder gently and turned me around. The spherical shape I'd seen before from above I saw now was a globe and all over it there were little lights glowing. "These lights are the children of the world who believe in the Guardians. It is the Guardians' job to protect them, to keep safe the Wonder, Hope, and Dreams that children have - and now the Memories, since you are a Guardian."

I lifted off from the ground again, getting a closer look at the globe and the shining lights on it. I flew around it once, and then hovered over the area where my town was located. A few weeks ago I wouldn't have known where it was at all, but in just a few days of collecting teeth, I'd learned more about the geography of the earth than I had ever known. "Protect them from what?"

"From Pitch Black," said Bunny. I turned around and came back to land on the platform.

"From Fear," North said.

"What's Pitch Black?" I asked.

"Not 'what', 'who'. Maybe you have heard of the Boogey Man, yes?" North said. Above Sandman's head, images of a man with swept back hair appeared, seemingly made out of sand. Again, it was something I had heard stories about as a child. The Boogey Man would hide under beds and scare children in the night. When I was younger, he seemed a very scary figure, but as I grew up more I didn't believe in him anymore. I nodded. "The Boogey Man, his name is Pitch Black. He spreads fear in the hearts of children, making it hard for them to believe in us. Well, he did..."

"But we've gotten rid of him now," Bunny said proudly. "He was a big problem a while ago but we made sure that no one worries about him anymore."

"Still," North said, "We have to continue to protect the children. You see, as long as they believe in us, we have the power to keep spreading Dreams and Hope and Wonder, but if they stop believing in us-"

"Those powers go away," I said. "The Moon told me that about me and my powers."

"That's how it is for all of us," Bunny said. "Well, for those of us who are Guardians. Not the others."

"The others?" I asked.

"There are other people like us, immortal with special powers, but they're not Guardians. Their powers don't depend on people believing they exist. But they don't have any special part in protecting children, mostly they just do what they want." Bunny seemed a bit annoyed at saying this. "They don't have to work like we do. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but-"

"I love what I do too," I burst out, unable to contain it. I was thinking of Pippa and the other kids from my town. "I love collecting teeth even though I never would've thought anything about it before. I think the Moon made me like it. But it's good to know that it helps protect the children. I like being a Guardian." Sandman smiled and bobbed up and down a little and North looked proud as ever. "But, I'm sorry, you were saying? Who are the others?"

"Well," Bunny continued, "There's the leprechaun in Ireland..."

"And a groundhog in the colonies that you came from, Tooth," North said. _A groundhog? _I thought, _What's so special about a groundhog?_ Above Sandman's head appeared the image of a snowflake which I didn't understand but North continued, "Ah, and yes, a very new boy, Jack Frost!"

I guess it was just the name that struck me and made me want to ask more. "Jack Frost? Who is he?"

"A boy who has powers of Winter," Bunny said. "I definitely prefer Springtime, and why we needed a kid who can control Winter, I don't know. He can make it snow and freeze things and-" As Bunny talked, images of Winter in the town flicked into my head. The snow falling, the lake, ice skating with Jack and then sitting on the edge of the lake under the moonlight, staring at the hole in the ice where he'd fallen through... I shut my eyes tightly and shook my head, trying to clear the images but all I could see was Jack on the ice - a smile, and the sickening sound of ice cracking...

"Bunny," North said loudly, and I felt a small hand on my arm. I opened my eyes to see Sandman patting my arm with a sympathetic look while North said, "Tooth does not want to think about Winter, look, it upsets her."

"Oh," Bunny said. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's ok," I said.

An awkward silence followed but then North clapped his hands. "Well, now! It is time to do what we were all called here for," he said happily. "It is time to make you a Guardian, Tooth."

"I thought I was already-"

"We have to make it official," Bunny said while Sandman nodded eagerly.

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement and a burst of sound. All around me there we small shapes in red pointy suits with bells on the top - "St. Nicholas's Elves" I realized - and large bear-like creatures which I figured must've been what North had referred to as "yetis". The elves were playing grand music from horns while one of the yetis handed a giant book to North. While he leafed through it, Bunny and Sandman backed up until It was just me and North surrounded by elves and the bear-creatures.

"The Oath of the Guardians," he announced, looking at me while the music slowly faded out. "Will you, Toothiana, vow to watch over the children of the world, to guard them with you life, their hopes, their wishes, and their dreams, for they are all we have, all we are and all that we will ever be?

Again I thought of Pippa and of countless children like her to whom I'd delivered gifts in return for teeth, children whose memories were now entrusted to me and my fairies. "I will," I said with a smile.

"Then congratulations, Toothiana, for you are now and forever more a Guardian." North smiled and applause broke out among the elves and the yetis, and Bunny and Sandman came over, both clapping as well though Sandy's claps didn't make any noise.

"Congratulations," Bunny said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a holiday to prepare for. See you later," he said with a little salute before tapping the ground with his foot. I gasped as a large hole appeared and he dropped down into it, the hole closing up behind him.

North laughed. "Haha, yes, Bunny's tunnels can be surprising. That is how he gets everywhere so quickly - much in the same way that the wings Manny gave you allow you to travel fast. I nodded, still too surprised to say anything.

Above Sandman's head appeared an image of a child in bed and he gestured toward the opening in the roof, which I understood to mean that he was leaving too. "It was a pleasure to meet you," I said as he floated up through the roof and was off. It made me realize that I too should probably be getting back to my job. Already the locations of lost teeth were crowding up in my head. "I should go, too," I said. "It was nice to meet you. Thank you, North." I reached out to shake his hand and instead he pulled me into a hug.

"You are always welcome here, Tooth. I will be seeing you."

I said goodbye and zipped back up through the opening in the roof, my fairies following along after me.

* * *

As I flew, I thought about what Bunny had said about Jack Frost. Somewhere deep in my heart I wondered if he could possibly be the Jack I knew. If the Moon had chosen me, was it so wild to wonder if maybe Jack had been chosen too? They had said that he was new. I thought back to what I'd overheard my father and the town leader talking about: they'd never found my body - presumably because the Moon had changed it into this form - and they'd never found Jack's body either, so...Could it be? Would he have been chosen to be some sort of Winter spirit because he'd fallen through the ice? I didn't know - I didn't know how or why the Moon chose Guardians or other immortal creatures.

Then I realized, if the fairies had been collecting teeth, maybe they'd collected Jack's too. I flew faster, arriving at the Tooth Palace much more quickly than I should've considering how long it had taken me to fly to North's Workshop, but I suppose that it made sense given the way that the Tooth Palace seemed to move around in the sky.

Fairies were still coming and going, delivering coins and returning with teeth. A flurry on them buzzed around me as I returned and almost out of habit I began reciting the locations of teeth to them, and so they flew off in different directions while I flew over to the wall of tooth containers. I looked at all of the pictures on the ends. There were so many, it would take me forever to find his if they were - but there he was. The picture was unmistakable. It was Jack.

I delicately pulled the tube out of the wall. A few fairies fluttered around me still, watching curiously. I wondered what sort of memories were in this container. They probably wouldn't help me at all to find out if Jackson Overland had anything to do with Jack Frost but it was worth a try. I pressed a finger to the tube and it slowly opened up, but I only saw the teeth within. Most of the spaces were full but there were a couple still that would never be filled. I couldn't see the memories they held though, I realized, remembering how the Moon had explained things to me. The only person who could see the memories in the teeth would be the person that the teeth belonged to.

I sat back and sighed, tears coming to my eyes. Whenever I thought about Jack, I wanted to cry. I missed him and I wanted to know so badly what had happened to him. He had... died, I know, but could he possibly have come back as a creature like me? A few tears escaped my eyes and for a few moments I just wrapped my arms around myself and cried. My fairies flew close around me, their tiny hands resting on my forehead and my cheeks, trying to comfort me. I knew that if I kept thinking about Jack, and wondering, and hoping, and dreaming, that I would not get my job done. Wonder and Hope and Dreams were for the children of the world, and so were Memories. I had to protect them, which meant that I didn't have time for those things myself.

I brushed myself off and lifted into the air again with new resolve to collect teeth and protect children as best as I could. Maybe I would run into this Jack Frost person while I worked, or maybe I wouldn't. Maybe Jack had been chosen by the Moon and maybe he hadn't. I couldn't dwell on it.

I listed off more locations for my fairies and then after collecting a handful of pennies, I flew from the Tooth Palace to continue my job as Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy, collecting teeth and protecting memories.


	10. Chapter 10

It only felt like a couple of weeks, but a few years passed. I occasionally thought back to what Bunny had said about us being immortal. The Moon had never said anything about it but I figured that Bunny and North and Sandman would know what they were talking about. The fact that time seemed to be passing more quickly would make a lot of sense if I really was immortal. I never got ill, and I rarely needed rest, which also supported the idea of immortality, but I didn't give it too much thought. I just kept doing my job.

There were always children losing teeth. The job became second-nature to me and I no longer felt awkward about going into people's houses while they were asleep. As far as I could tell, children kept believing in me - my powers never weakened. I was quite careful about not being seen, which was more out of instinct than anything. It was something else the Moon hadn't said anything about but it seemed to be how North and Bunny operated. Beside that, I couldn't get the memory of Pippa out of my head. She had seen me that day. Her reaction had been sweet, certainly, but I didn't know if I could handle interaction like that again.

Being the Tooth Fairy, being this creature that was believed in but never seen was sort of like being unreal. Tabitha was a person from long ago, like a dream. She wasn't a part of me anymore, and it was easier that way. It was the only way to let go of my grief. I wasn't part of "the real world" anymore, I was rather a thought in the minds of children, a fleeting figure on the edges of night. Tabitha would always be mourning the loss of Jack Overland, picturing his terrible death and reliving the memories of time spent with him. Tabitha would be a tearful, broken wreck, unsure of how to cope with the sorrow for the rest of her life. But Toothiana had a job to do, a purpose, Toothiana was needed and couldn't slack off lest her powers fade away, Toothiana didn't have time to be overcome with grief - so I focused on being Toothiana, and let Tabitha become just a memory.

I saw North occasionally, on Christmas nights and on a few visits to his workshop at the Pole. Though I always had my fairies, it did get sort of lonely sometimes. I ran into Bunny here and there as well, but not as often. I did see Sandman a lot though, given that we both worked every night, so we became quite close. I occasionally came across other immortal creatures like Bunny had been talking about, those with special powers but who weren't Guardians. We never really interacted but it was definitely interesting to see what else the Moon had dreamed up. And then there was Jack Frost...

I kept an eye out for him, more out of curiosity now than to explore any possible connection between him and Jackson Overland. Whenever there was snowy weather somewhere, I looked especially hard, but in those few years I didn't run into him at all. Of course, that was bound to change sometime.

* * *

Mostly, I avoided returning to my hometown. Whenever there was work there, I let the fairies take care of it. Going back would only bring back memories, I figured, and that wasn't what I needed. I had to stay focused. One day though, I found that there was a lost tooth there, and the owner was none other than my brother Isaac. For a few minutes, I debated whether or not to go. It had been years since I had seen my family or any of the people who lived in our town. It would be so wonderful to see Isaac and James again, and of course to see my mother and father, even if it was just a glimpse of them sleeping. On the other hand, would I be able to handle the memories that this visit would no doubt bring to mind? Especially given that it was Winter, that the lake would be frozen over again... I wasn't sure.

A few of my fairies could tell that I was dealing with an internal conflict and they flitted around my, resting on my shoulders for a few seconds or putting their tiny hands on my cheek, trying to comfort me. In the end, the desire to see my family won out. After all, if I was immortal, I could probably afford a few extra minutes to see them, and to deal with any emotions that might arise. Even so, I told myself that I was not allowed to visit the lake, because that would surely do me in. I told my fairies of the other jobs I knew of, and then, with a few pennies in hand, I left the Tooth Palace and headed toward my hometown.

* * *

The fire in the town square was burned down to embers and every house's door was closed against the chill of the Winter night. That was another thing that I had noticed - temperature and weather didn't seem to bother me anymore. Wind and rain of course made it a bit more difficult to fly, but my teeth never chattered the way they used to.

I silently touched down in the town square. A few windows had light glowing in them but at this hour it would probably be only adults that were awake and I had learned that only those who believed in me would be able to see me. That was how it worked with all of the immortals, Guardian or not. Adults, then, were not a problem, and it very much explained why Pippa had been able to see me that day when my brothers hadn't. I slowly made my way from the square to my house.

It looked the same as ever and there was the small flicker of just a few candles burning within the main room. I peered in the window to see my father putting away his rifle and extinguishing the last few candles. My mother must've already been in bed, and Isaac and James certainly were. I let my wings slowly drawn me into the air again and flew around to the back of our house. I glanced through the window of what used to be my room and found it empty and unused. I'm not sure why that give me a small feeling of happiness, but it did. Perhaps it was that I knew they hadn't forgotten about me. Though I was a different person now, it still felt good to know that my family still thought of me.

I continued on to the window of James and Isaac's room. It was a simple matter of creeping in through the window and replacing his tooth with a penny. I'd gotten quite good at it but this time, unlike many others, I paused for just a moment and looked at my brothers. They had grown quite a bit but still looked as peaceful as ever in their sleep. I knew I'd be back probably several times within the next couple years as they both began to lose their baby teeth. I wanted so badly to reach out and stroke Isaac's hair, to touch James' cheek, to pick them both up and hug them like I used to, but it wasn't my place anymore. I wasn't their sister anymore. Tears welled up into my eyes and for the first time in years, I let them fall.

I must've spent longer standing there than I thought because the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon when I finally flitted out through the window. It was still quite dark though, due to a thick, low layer of clouds. I wanted to visit Pippa too, but I knew that it would hurt too much. As I took to the air, it started to snow. I was just about to fly through the layer of clouds when something darted past me on the wind.

I spun quickly but the figure was gone, which didn't make sense because I was a very fast flier. I had wings that went the speed of a hummingbird's, so what on earth could've escaped my sight? But then I saw it again, something darting in and out of the snow clouds. The snow started to fall harder and the temperature dropped. I took off after the figure, following but not too close. I wasn't sure yet whether or not I wanted to be seen by whoever or whatever it was.

Finally, the figure landed in the town square. Alighting on a rooftop, I audibly gasped at what I saw. Despite the frost-white hair, and even without the help of the sight of the very familiar cloak, I knew in a heartbeat that it was Jack Frost, or rather, Jackson Overland.


	11. Chapter 11

My breath caught in my chest. There was no mistaking him at all. He wore the same Winter cloak he always had, the same breeches. He was barefoot, which might've seemed strange but for the fact that it was something Jackson Overland would've done. He had been such a trickster, doing anything to get a laugh out of people, so walking around in snow with no shoes on wasn't entirely unlike him. And in his hand, he carried... the images flashed back into my head, the lake the night that Jack drowned, the strangely-shaped branch by the hole in the ice and then a couple days later, the hole was still there but the branch had been gone. He carried it like he was used to it, sort of the way one would carry a staff, almost like it was just an extension of who he was rather than a branch he had picked up at random.

As quietly as I could, I darted to another closer rooftop, hiding myself behind a chimney. I wasn't sure at this point why I was hiding - maybe I'd just gotten so used to it. But part of me too wanted to see what he would do, how he was doing now that the Moon had chosen him and given him special powers. It was interesting to see how he had changed - the shock white hair was certainly the most noticeable difference. Up closer though I was just barely able to see that his eyes, once a warm brown, were now icy blue. He walked around the town square slowly, head down as though he was sad. It made sense that he would be, I supposed, given that everyone in this town thought him dead. It probably wasn't easy for him to return here, knowing that, the same way it wasn't easy for me to return either and to see everyone carrying on. As he walked, he tapped the branch against various things - stacks of wood, barrels, even the ground, and everything he tapped seemed to slowly become covered in frost. Bunny had said that Jack Frost had power over Winter elements, so the name was certainly fitting.

As my mind worked through all of the logic of seeing him, my heart was roiling with emotion. It was only a few years ago that I had skated with Jack across the pond just outside of the town. Only a few years ago, he had kissed my cheek, put his arm around me, smiled at me the way he smiled at no one else. We had hugged, he had kissed my hand over and over. We had spent so much time together. I had only been sixteen and at that age I had only imagined love in fairytales but there was no denying that love was what I had felt toward Jackson Overland. It was in everything about being near him - the warm feeling that had always erupted inside of me whenever I was near him, the way he made me blush so often or how self-conscious I got when he looked at me. Looking at him now, all of those feeling returned in a surging wave.

For the past few years, I had put him out of my thoughts, focused on the job instead of wondering what had become of him. I hadn't sought out Jack Frost and I had avoided returning to our hometown. I had pushed all of those emotions away, convinced that the grief would overcome me if I didn't. I had so carefully and so fully become Toothiana so that Tabitha's emotions and thoughts couldn't get in the way of Toothiana's duties, but yet seeing him brought me back to being the same sixteen-year-old Tabitha. It wasn't grief that I was feeling, though. Jack wasn't dead, like I had thought. Sure, he was quite different now, but he wasn't dead, and that was the most important thing. It still hurt to think of him falling through the hole in the ice, but maybe that was why the Moon had given him power over cold and ice, because of the way he died. I still couldn't believe that both of us could've been chosen by the Moon, but apparently the Moon will choose whoever he wants, whenever he wants.

The sky grew brighter though everything remained the same shade of gray underneath the cloud cover. Every muscle in my body was tensed and adrenaline seeped through my veins. My wings twitched eagerly despite me being perched and motionless. I wanted so badly to fly down to him, to hug him the way I used to, but something held me back. I was so different - I didn't even look human anymore, so it was ridiculous to expect that Jack would recognize me. Did he even know that I had died? I would've liked to think that he would've noticed my absence from the town - I liked to think that he had felt some of the same attachment to me that I had to him, but that might've been pretentious of me. Just because I'd been in love with him didn't mean that he had felt the same way, so it was possible that he wasn't even concerned with my absence. But I couldn't even know if he'd been back here before this, so maybe he didn't know only due to the fact that he hadn't seen enough to notice that I was missing. But what would he do if a half-human-half-hummingbird fairy suddenly flew up to him and hugged him as though he was a long-lost friend? There was no way that he'd know it was me, so if I wanted to introduce myself, I'd have to calm down first and take a more dignified approach. In the back of my mind, my logical side, the side so concerned with my duties, was telling me that I should leave, return to the Tooth Palace and continue collecting teeth, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. My heart was feeling something much too strong for my head to overrule. The boy I loved and thought dead for many years, the boy whom I had waited for by the ice until my own heart had stopped, was casually walking around the square of our hometown right in front of me, changed but very much alive.

Being an immortal creature made time pass in very strange ways and I watched Jack wander around the town until the sun had climbed very high in the sky and people were beginning to emerge from their houses to go about their daily lives. Jack was in plain sight and made no move to hide as the roads around him become busy with townspeople. I had thought he would leave - I myself was being quite careful to stay out of sight - but he still wandered the streets as people walked around him. He was certainly very aware of the people around him but it didn't seem as though they even knew he was there. He looked into the faces of people who were once our neighbors and friends and they didn't see him at all. Someone approached him from behind, about to run into him, but I gasped as instead of making contact, the young man walked right through Jack. A bit of surprise crossed Jack's face but was then replaced with another sad and somewhat resigned look, as though this was something he'd gotten used to.

I thought back to what I'd been told about the fact that people could only see me if they believed in me. Though I had gotten very good at hiding, there were still instances when children had seen me - really seen me - but other times when I'd been in plain sight of adults who weren't even aware that I was there. It was easily enough explained; children were young enough to still believe in magic and fantasy, and thus, the Tooth Fairy, but many adults had grown out of that, so children could see me while adults couldn't. Still, there were a few children in the crowd that didn't show any signs of being able to see Jack either. "Oh, Jack," I whispered quietly, wishing again that I could just fly down and hug him. I imagined that having people not see you would be a very lonely existence.

As he made his way around the square, I saw my family approach. They were all bundled up against the cold and my father carried his rifle, probably off to take the boys hunting, while my mother carried a sack which she used when she went about on errands. They passed by very close to Jack but he didn't seem to acknowledge them at all, and when Isaac and James walked right through him, he gave no sign of recognition. Maybe my family was not of great importance to him and I supposed that with everything else that had happened to him, it made sense, but I still felt a little defensive and a little hurt that he didn't even acknowledge them at all, whether or not they could see him.

But luckily enough, I saw Mr. and Mrs. Overland approaching with Pippa following behind from the other side of the square. My father greeted Mr. Overland while my mother and Jack's mother embraced. It looked like our fathers were both off to hunt together, taking the boys with them, while Mrs. Overland and my mother were going to do errands with Pippa in tow since she was still too young to be left at home by herself. If Jack saw this, it would probably be enough to make him realize that there was something strange about me not being there - after all, it was very unlikely that I would remain home instead of going to help my mother. If there had been work to do at home, my mother would've done it herself and sent me to do errands in her place.

Isaac and James were being the rambunctious boys they always were, roughhousing with each other as they and the men broke away from the ladies and headed out of town. Pippa clung to her mother but reached out a gloved hand as the snow began to fall harder. A few flakes came down on her glove and she drew them close to her face, just looking at them. Other children who were out were playfully trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues, but Pippa was more somber, just as she had been that day years ago after Jack's death when Winter was melting into Spring and her mother was taking her to the meadow. As the snowflakes melted on her glove, she took a deep breath, her little face sad, before clutching onto her mother, pressing her face into the side of her mother's cloak. I knew it must've been hard for her, being surrounded by the presence of Winter when it had been Winter that had stolen her brother away from her. Surely this display would get a reaction out of Jack. If there was anyone Jack would never be able to lose his feelings for, it was Pippa. After all, he had died in order to save her life.

But as I watched Jack, he walked right past them, not even looking at Pippa as she held tightly to her mother. As the ladies turned and headed off in the direction of the market, Pippa and Mrs. Overland both walked right through Jack. Just as before, he had a little expression of surprise, but nothing more as the resigned look returned to his face. It was as if even his own family, even Pippa, meant nothing to him anymore. It broke my heart to see it and tears once again formed in my eyes, my emotions overruling the part of me that had been so carefully focused on my job as the Tooth Fairy. Had Jack really let go of them that easily? It was one thing for him to be unconcerned with my family or even me, but for him to ignore Pippa... What had happened to him in the years since the Moon had chosen him? Did he really just not care? I couldn't believe that but what else could explain how little acknowledgment he gave to the presence of people he had once loved?

He walked around for a few moments more, his very presence seeming to give chills to the people around him as they pulled their cloaks more tightly around them and hurried on their way with their breath clouding in the air in front of them. Then Jack leapt into the air as a chill breeze swept through the square, and alighted on a rooftop near where I was hiding. "Alright, Wind," he said quietly, "time to go somewhere else." With that, a violently cold wind blew over the rooftops and Jack jumped into the air, caught by the gust and being carried away.

I darted into the air before I could even think about what I was doing and called out, "Jack!" He turned and I stopped, hovering in place while he looked at me with wide eyes. I knew he could see me, and his face was surprised at first, but then skeptical. "Jack..." I said, more quietly and a bit awkwardly. What could I even say?

"Who are you?" he asked bluntly, poised on the wind like he was ready to swoop away at a moment's notice.

"It's me, Tab-" I started, but I stopped myself, biting my lip. He didn't recognize me, which was completely understandable, given the dramatic change in my appearance, but after what I had just witnessed, maybe he didn't _want_ to recognize me. Maybe he didn't want to be reminded of his human life anymore. Maybe he was moving on, the same way that I had, abandoning the person he had once been and fully embracing who he was now, Jack Frost. I could hear the resignation in my own voice as I said, "My name is Toothiana. I'm the Tooth Fairy."

He just looked at me for a moment more, then raised an eyebrow and saying, "Right..." and then before I could say anything else, he turned and darted away, flying upward through the clouds.

"Jack!" I called after him, more tears escaping my eyes, but he didn't turn around or look back. In mere moments, he was gone. I wanted so badly to follow him but it was clear that he had no interest in seeing me or spending time with me, so who was I to impose my presence on him? Unless he found me again and approached me, it was probably best that I just leave him be. It hurt to think that, but I would never want to do anything that would make Jack uncomfortable. Even if he didn't care about Tabitha anymore, I still loved him. I hovered there for a minute more, staring at the place where he'd disappeared into the clouds through tears, sobbing softly.

I shook my head after a moment, knowing that I should return to the Tooth Palace, but there was too much pain in my heart and I couldn't bring myself to fly upward to my new home, to fly away in the same direction that Jack had. Instead, I turned toward the town again. Flying over it slowly and just out of sight, I spotted Pippa with her mother and mine. The ladies had stopped to speak to a merchant and Pippa was looking around idly. I touched down just around the corner from where she was, and peeked out. "Pippa," I whispered, unsure that she would hear me or still be able to see me, but her head turned toward me instantly. There were no other children around and all of the adults were too busy going about their daily duties on the frigid day to notice as Pippa suddenly became entranced with what was apparently thin air. "Do you see me, Pippa?" I asked quietly.

She nodded, eyes wide. "You're the fairy," she whispered in shock, "the one I saw that Spring." She stepped a little closer to me. "You know my name?"

"Yes, I do," I said, wiping my eyes and trying to smile. "I know a lot about you, Pippa, including that you've lost three of your baby teeth." She gasped quietly. I gave a smile that was a bit more genuine.

"You're the Tooth Fairy!" she said in surprise, still whispering.

I nodded and smiled. "Yes, I am." I wasn't entirely sure why I had come to talk to her. Perhaps I needed the reassurance that someone who I cared about could still see me to make up for the pain of having been rejected by Jack Frost - but suddenly I had an idea. "I have a question for you, Pippa," I said. She nodded a little bit, eyes still wide. "Do you believe in Jack Frost?"

Confusion came over her face. "Who's Jack Frost?"

"Jack Frost is the Winter Spirit," I said, improvising. "He rides on the cold wind and brings Winter with him, making it snow and freezing things."

She looked down at the ground now, her mouth turning down in sadness. "My... my brother's name was Jack," she said. "He fell through the ice on the pond and died." She was about to start crying.

I reached forward and took her hands. It was the first contact I'd had with anyone human since I had died. "I know, Pippa. I know about what happened to him."

"Was that Jack Frost's fault?" she demanded indignantly. "If he makes things freeze, did he make the ice on the pond crack when Jack saved me? Is it Jack Frost's fault?"

Tears came to my eyes again as I saw the anger and hurt and pain in hers, her eyes that were so much like her brother's. "No, Pippa, it wasn't Jack Frost's fault," I said, reaching out and stroking her cheek. "If Jack Frost had been there," I continued, "I'm sure he would've made the ice freeze even more, I'm sure he would've saved your brother." People around us were starting to look at Pippa, chuckling to themselves. After all, it wasn't uncommon for a girl of her age to have an imaginary friend, and after the loss and pain she'd been through, who could've blamed her for seeking solace in the imaginary rather than dealing with reality? Her face scrunched up again as she clearly fought back tears. I squeezed her hands gently. "In fact, Pippa," I said, "If you believe in him hard enough, you might even see Jack Frost."

"What?" she said, wiping her nose as the cold air and the sadness started to make her sniffle.

"That's right. You can see me because you believe in me, don't you?" I asked with a smile and she nodded with some uncertainty. "Well, if you believe in Jack Frost, you'll be able to see him too. Maybe then you can ask him about what happened to your brother." I didn't know what Jack would tell Pippa if this ever happened, and maybe he didn't ever want to have to answer this question from her as he apparently didn't even care to be around her. But since he wasn't paying attention to her, just like I had wanted to comfort her after the service for Jack's death, I felt that I had to give her some sort of hope. "You know I wouldn't lie to you, right, Pip?"

Her eyes widened again. "Only Jack called me that," she whispered, her brow furrowing. I was surprised - it seemed like a fairly convenient nickname for her, so I thought that many other people must've called her by it, besides Jack and - "Only Jack and... Tabitha," she said, looking at me questioningly, tears in her eyes again.

I choked back another sob and forced a smile. "Maybe you can ask Jack Frost about her too," I said. I didn't know why I didn't just tell her the truth - maybe I was still afraid that I wouldn't be able to handle the emotions that would arise. After all, in the past couple hours, my heart had been through enough.

"Who are you talking to, Pippa?" Mrs. Overland said, turning to her daughter. I pulled my hands away from Pippa's and froze, and so did she for a moment.

"Um..." She glanced from me to her mother. "The Tooth Fairy?"

"Ah, I see," her mother said with a chuckle. "Well, you'd better tell the Tooth Fairy goodbye, we have to go," she said, smiling and taking Pippa's hand.

As her mother began to pull her away, she looked back at me. "Jack Frost?" she whispered urgently.

"Yes, Pippa, Jack Frost," I said. "Believe in him. He's as real as I am."

She nodded, and a tiny smile came to her lips. "Thank you, Tooth Fairy." She waved and then turned and followed her mom.

"Thank you, Pippa," I said quietly, standing again and watching her go. After a moment, I took a deep breath and then started flitting my wings and rose up into the sky. I wasn't sure what I had just accomplished, if anything at all, but I felt better. If Jack Frost didn't want to see me, then that was that. I'd still probably see him every once in a while anyway, and it still might hurt to know that he would never know who I really was, but I'd have to focus on my duties and put Tabitha aside again so I could just be Toothiana. I gave the town one last look, deciding that I would probably let my fairies handle anymore jobs there, and then turned and headed skyward through the cloud cover, to return to the Tooth Palace.


	12. Chapter 12

Weeks became months, months became years, and soon decades began to pass without me even noticing. I had become my job, and there was nothing bad about that. I loved it. Sure, I would occasionally pause and laugh at myself for becoming so excited about well-kept molars and sparkling white incisors, but in the end, it wasn't silly. It might've been silly for a little human girl, but I was the Tooth Fairy. This was what I lived for.

I still stayed away from my hometown. I didn't want to become distracted again, and there was no emotional disappointment in collecting teeth, besides the occasional pang when a child lost his last tooth, but it was all for a good cause so it was never hard to find happiness again. I still saw the other Guardians from time to time. There was rarely a year when I didn't run into North on December 25th, and I even saw Bunny a few times though our work schedules were fairly different. I saw Sandy more often than any of them and I would sometimes get to catch glimpses of what children were dreaming of as I came to collect their teeth. Occasionally the dreams showed funny bits of how the tooth had come to fall out in the first place.

It was neat to see belief in the Guardians spreading throughout the world. It had never been a problem for North, but Easter slowly spread as well, so Bunny's workload got bigger every year. It wasn't too much of a problem, it seemed. The Magic of the Moon did many things, and Bunny told me about how his Warren had grown to accommodate the number of eggs he had to paint and the way the plants had grown to aid in the process as well. I found that my Tooth Palace changed too as belief in me spread and my powers got stronger. The changes were much more subtle though, given that teeth were very small to work with. The wall holding all of the teeth grew to accommodate all of the children of the world, more tooth containers with more faces appearing every day. Eventually this wall covered an entire one of the bird-cage like structures in the Palace, and I suspected that more of more of the structures would be covered as time went on.

Sometimes as I worked, flying through towns and down country lanes in the dead of night, I would catch a glimpse of something in the shadows. Something or someone. There were places where the darkness seemed a little bit darker, the shadows a bit more menacing. I thought back to what North had said about Pitch Black and wondered if it was something that I should've brought up to him, but I never knew if I had seen right because it was always out of the corner of my eye, and nothing seemed to be changing too drastically, so all seemed to be ok. Sandy worked every night too, so I figured that if he'd seen it and hadn't brought it up, it couldn't be anything to worry about.

I had stopped worrying about finding Jack Frost, though occasionally I found him on accident. I'd swoop through low clouds into towns and see him darting up and away, finding the place covered in freshly fallen snow, or frozen over with a sheet of ice. It was always a pretty sight but I didn't much care for flying through snow clouds and when it snowed hard enough, my fairies couldn't fly at all. I didn't mind taking the cities where my fairies couldn't fly but I hated to see the poor things flying back to the Tooth Palace shivering and sniffling when a storm had hit suddenly. And then there were some storms that even I couldn't tolerate, fierce blizzards that buried towns in snowdrifts several feet high while bitter winds tore at the faces of anyone who stepped outside. I did occasionally hear parents joking to their children that the Tooth Fairy might not come because of the bad weather, but that wasn't how it worked. If I stopped collecting teeth for any reason, kids might've stopped believing in me, and that couldn't be allowed to happen.

There were even a few times that I'd enter a house on a calm night and leave the house to an all out blizzard. More than once I lost my patience and shouted at him. "Jack Frost! Quit landing your blizzards on me!" I would yell, flying after him. Sometimes he'd turn and look at me, his face angry, while other times in softer snowfalls he seemed a lot more lighthearted. I eventually realized that the way he controlled the weather often depended on his mood, but I had no idea what could ever put him into such rages that caused unbelievable blizzards. I'd have asked him if I could, but he never responded to me or looked at me for longer than a few seconds before disappearing through the clouds again. The first few times it bothered me but I let it go. He was no longer Jackson Overland and I wasn't Tabitha anymore. He would never recognize me and probably wouldn't want to talk to me even if he did, given how he'd treated our families, and even Pippa. If he wouldn't even show a smile seeing her, than what chance had I? So I let it be and continued with my work, still losing my temper with him occasionally but of course it never changed anything.

* * *

As silly as it sounded (seeing as I didn't age) I still kept track of my birthdays as they passed. Twenty years, thirty years, forty, fifty... They all passed before my eyes and I remained the same. I rarely had time to sit around and reminisce about the past but I couldn't help but think about the things I was missing. It was strange to think that I would be preserved in this state while the people I'd known as a child were living out their lives normally. I could watch my brothers grow up, and Pippa too, if I chose to, but I would never be a grown woman in human terms. I wouldn't follow in my mother's footsteps. I wouldn't marry, I'd never have children of my own. In some ways, it did feel like I had been cheated out of the life I thought I would have - but if I was honest with myself, I wouldn't have had that life anyway. Losing Jack had taken its toll on me as Tabitha. Maybe it was silly for a sixteen-year-old girl to have been so attached to a boy like that, but then, maybe it was how tragic and sudden his death was that got to me. Seeing so many children every day and night, it became so clear to me that no child should ever have to cope with something that painful. It wasn't that I'd necessarily wanted to die after Jack did, but at 16 I didn't know how to handle losing the boy I was falling in love with. If the Moon hadn't chosen me, that didn't mean that I would be going along with my life - I would just be dead, having frozen solid on the bank of the same lake that had claimed Jack.

It was easy enough to avoid returning to my town in the early years of my job but as I came upon what would've been my 70th birthday, the cold realization hit me that if I wanted to see my family again, it could be my last chance. Just because I had stopped aging didn't mean the world around me would stand still too. Though it was difficult to let myself take a break from my tooth-collecting duties, I turned my sights toward my hometown. As I flew I realized with a pang that my parents had probably already passed on. Despite how much I had separated myself from the human emotions and memories that made me Tabitha, it hurt to know that I hadn't seen my parents before they'd died. For all I knew, my brothers and Pippa could've been gone too. I tried to push this thought away as I flew and soon, I dipped through a cloud layer and hovered over the familiar place.

A light snow was falling but Jack Frost was nowhere to be seen. The sun was going down and people were hurrying home to the warmth of a hearth fire. In the silence that only existed on a snow covered night, windows light up with candlelight and I touched down on the cold road so that the whirring of my wings didn't disturb the quiet either. I headed down the familiar path to my house, eventually stopping in front of it and peering in the windows. There was Isaac, nearly an old man now with graying hair and a slight limp. A woman was with him, whom I was sure I had played with when we were both children. She was setting the table as two young women - their children, I assumed, prepared dinner. The house looked as warm and cheery as it had when my parents, my brothers and I had lived there together. I couldn't help but put a hand against the glass looking past my reflection to the cozy scene within, missing the days before that winter in 1709.

Since the house belonged to Isaac and his family now, I thought as I stepped away from the window, I had no idea where James lived. The town wasn't that big, so it was fairly easy to fly through it, peering in windows and checking to see if I could find him. It wasn't a perfect method and after checking almost every house in the town, I still hadn't see him. Of course, I couldn't be sure if I hadn't just missed him but I thought I'd checked very carefully. There were any number of reasons why I might not have seen him though. I could check back another time. Then my thoughts turned to Pippa. It might've been just as hard to find her, since houses were normally passed down to sons rather than daughters, but Jack had been the only son, so maybe the house had passed to Pippa anyway. It was possible that the Overlands could've had another son after Pippa, but when I landed on a rooftop across the way from the Overland house, the aged woman I saw through the window was most certainly Pippa. She was staring out at the snow with a small smile on her face. Her own family was putting together a meal behind her and after a moment she stepped away from the window.

I had turned to leave, glad to know that she was at least happy, when I heard the door open. Looking back, I saw her step out into the snow, arms outstretched. She breathed deeply, closing her eyes for a moment while turning her head skyward. I quietly flew down to the road just to be able to see her more closely, and as she opened her eyes and turned her chin back down, her gaze suddenly locked onto mine. "Tooth Fairy," she said quietly. I gasped slightly. She'd been able to see me when she was little, but for some reason it surprised me that she still could. The shock must've shown on my face because then she said, "Do you remember me? You talked to me when I was just a little girl."

I smiled and took a step closer. "Of course I remember, Pippa," I said.

She smiled, too. "It has been a very long time. But there are no teeth to collect from my house tonight. What brings you here?"

"I'm just- um.." I paused. "Just visiting," I said. It wasn't a lie but it wasn't a good answer to her question either. I didn't have to explain further though because she spoke again.

"Do you remember telling me about Jack Frost?" she said, more quietly, with a mischievous look on her face that would've made Jackson Overland proud. I nodded and she gestured for me to step closer, so I did until I was right in front of her. She leaned toward me and whispered, "I've seen him."

"You have?" I asked, my eyes widening. Had she really? Did she believe in him strongly enough? I suppose it wasn't out of the question - she was, after all, talking to the Tooth Fairy.

"When the heavy snow falls, I've seen him in the clouds. White hair though he's a young man, and bare feet even in the snow. He swoops in and out of the clouds, and sometimes he even lands here but he never stays for long."

I smiled even wider. "That's him, alright," I said. "His storms make it difficult to fly sometimes, and he can be quite a trickster," I said with a laugh.

Her face suddenly became serious. "It's interesting that you should say that," she said quietly, "Because my brother, Jack, he was a trickster too. And whenever I see Jack Frost, he... he reminds me of my brother. I've never seen him up close but sometimes I think..."

I tried to keep my smile on my face but part of me, the part of me that was still 16-year-old Tabitha, wanted to cry and hug Pippa and tell her that yes, it was her brother. But how could I explain why he had never shown her any sign of his identity or why he'd been so cold toward her and her family? "I think your brother would want you to just be happy, Pippa," I said, my own voice quiet and barely holding back a well of emotions. She gave me a questioning look and I said, "I knew him too, after all."

"You... knew him?" she whispered, surprised.

"Of course I did, Pip, I'm the Tooth Fairy," I said, covering smoothly. Letting her know who I was would just require more explanation on my part and I wouldn't know what to say or how to handle that. She had given me another strange look when I said her name, but then nodded and chuckled and I knew that I was safe. Then I remembered how I'd been unable to find James. Maybe Pippa would know but could I ask? My curiosity was stronger than my desire to keep my identity a secret. "Pippa, do you know a man named James? I think you grew up around the time he did. He has a brother named Isaac and he had a sis-" I stopped myself, not wanting to finish that sentence.

"A sister named Tabitha," she finished, looking at me questioningly again, "who was the only one besides Jack to ever call me 'Pip'." I realized that I'd used her nickname and kept a straight face, just waiting for her to speak. "I did know James, yes," she said after a moment, "but didn't you? Being the Tooth Fairy and all?"

I gave a somewhat nervous laugh and said, "I _did_ know him, but after children grow up, I can't remember them all."

"But then, why would you ask about him, I wonder?" she said.

Instead of explaining, I just said, "Do you know where I'd be able to find him?"

She said nothing for a moment, just looking at me, and then said, "There's a cemetery just outside of town. You'll find him there."

"Oh no," I whispered without meaning to, "James." There were tears in my eyes as I stepped back and away from her. Pippa whispered something but I didn't catch it. I was too late. It had been hard to know that I hadn't seen my parents before their death, but as a human I'd never thought that I'd outlive my brothers. Then Pippa's words registered in my mind.

_I knew it,_ she'd said.

"I've missed you, Tabitha."

Without thinking, I said back, "I missed you too, Pip." Then my eyes widened as I looked at her, realizing what had just happened.

She had a sad smile on her face. "I have so many questions," she said, "but I've learned that some answers just never come. You died right after Jack did, and no one could ever tell me why I had to lose my two best friends when I was so little."

Tears spilled from my eyes. I took another step back. I'd been the Tooth Fairy for over fifty years. I didn't know how to handle this.

"I don't mean to make it harder on you," she said quietly. "I have to ask though. Jack Frost? Is he...?"

She didn't have to finish the question. I just nodded, more tears sliding down my cheeks.

She nodded with another small smile. "I thought so." I tried to swallow all of the emotion back down. My wings flitted almost without me noticing and I slowly lifted off the ground. "Tabitha, I still love you, just like I did when we were younger," she said. "I'm sorry things happened the way they did." The door behind her opened and a child's voice called for his grandmother to come back in from the cold. "Take care, Tabitha," she said.

"I love you too, Pippa," I said my voice breaking with emotion. She smiled again and then turned, heading back into the warmth of her house and closing the door behind her.

I flew out of town as though hell was at my heels. Sobs shook my body but the cold night air slowly calmed me down. I couldn't handle the memories of my human life, that was why I had left them behind when I became Toothiana, but I couldn't resist the pull of my hometown. But my parents had died, and now I had learned that James had too. I knew that I'd have to face the reality of Isaac's and Pippa's deaths soon too, and that was too much pain to bear. Would I return to see them again before that happened? It seemed heartless not to, but I didn't know if I'd be able to handle the hurt.

I did the only thing I could and flew back to the Tooth Palace, throwing myself into the work with all I had, trying to forget the emotional pain in Tabitha's heart and focus on the job that was Toothiana's duty as the Moon had bestowed on her.


	13. Chapter 13

How many times had I promised myself that I wouldn't return to the town I grew up in? I couldn't even remember, but after seeing Pippa and Isaac, I was compelled to check in on them every few weeks. It was never for very long that I visited, just a quick fly through town to peer in the windows. If I had stayed any longer, I would've gotten caught up in my emotions again. I told myself that I couldn't afford to lose time like that, but my fairies picked up the slack easily as long as I kept giving them directions. The real reason I avoided letting myself get too attached was that some part of me believed avoiding the feeling now would make things easier when I had to face the reality of the two of them dying, too. When the Man in the Moon had chosen me for this, he must've known that the first few decades wouldn't exactly be easy for me. Losing a person that was so dear to me in childhood had been tragically difficult, but knowing that I would outlive everyone I cared for and that most of them would never see or talk to me again was a new, fresh heartbreak that was even harder to cope with.

I didn't talk to Pippa again as a few more years passed, but I know she saw me. I'd give her a smile and a wave and she'd nod back, and then I'd fly on. There were times when Isaac looked right in my direction, but he still never saw me. He was my brother, I'd grown up with him, protected him, taken care of him, played with him... but he'd never see me again. I tried to let that go, but it was still difficult. But he was happy, and so was Pippa. They'd gotten to live the full lives that they deserved. There was nothing I could do to change anything and this was how things were supposed to be. I tried to let go of the hurt and lose myself to the job but I couldn't. Everything I'd ever known would be gone soon. Well, everything except Jack but I'd all but given up hope that he'd ever care again and that just made everything worse. It was one thing for him to not care about me but... Pippa? This reality of everyone passing on but us, he couldn't possibly shrug it off so easily, could he?

Isaac died a peaceful death a few years winters later. Old age claimed him in his sleep and I was there when they held the memorial service in the town square as they had for Jack and myself so many years ago. As much as I had tried to lose the part of me that was Tabitha, it would always remain, and the death of my other brother hit me hard. I wept as much as any other person standing in the square - his wife and children, and his grandchildren were all there. The only difference was that while they all had their arms wrapped around each other in their grief, there was no one there to hold me and protect me from the cold and the sorrow. Maybe some of the children saw me, but there were more important things at hand than the sight of me. I followed the funeral procession as they carried Isaac's coffin to the cemetery. I hadn't spent so much time on my feet for a long time but I didn't have it in me to fly that day. He was lain to rest right next to the stone that bore James' name, and not far away were the graves of my parents. To my surprise, there was also a stone marked with my own name. The ground below it was nothing but dirt, I knew, but it must've been some sort of honorary marker despite the fact that they hadn't had a body to bury. After the last of the grieving left the cemetery and headed back to town, I was alone. I stood motionless as the air grew colder and a light snow fell. Still more tears slipped down my cheeks. Yes, I was immortal, but something inside of my was still a 16-year-old girl who was now having to cope with the loss of everyone in her family.

I finally turned and walked back to town, though I didn't know why. I found myself walking to the Overland house, though it wasn't really the Overland house anymore. I didn't know what name Pippa had taken when she'd married. I stood back from it, peering in through the window from a distance. The grandchildren were abed already and their parents were off to bed as well. Only Pippa and her husband remained, dousing the lights. When there was only one left, Pippa's eyes swept across the window and landed on me. I didn't know why I was still standing there. I suppose I just needed human comfort. I could've talked to the other Guardians but they were so busy with their own jobs that I felt it would be rude to interrupt. My fairies would do their best to comfort me too, but it wasn't the same. Pippa said something to her husband and he turned to their room. When he was in their bed, Pippa came over to the door, opening it and slowly stepping outside. I looked slightly away from her eyes, my own still teary.

She took a step forward. "I'm sorry, Tabitha," she said quietly. The snow came down in great flakes between us, and I couldn't say anything. She took another few steps and I turned my gaze to the ground. "I don't know how you became like this," she said, "but I know that your love for your family never diminished. It has been many years yet here you stand. You seem to have not aged a day."

_What am I doing here?_ I asked myself. _I should be back at the Tooth Palace. I have a job to do._ But I couldn't bring myself to wave my wings and fly away. I just stood there with my arms wrapped around myself, tears in my eyes, snow clinging to my feathers, and Pippa standing in front of me. Pippa spoke again, "I understand the pain of loss. I know that I cannot offer much comfort." She rested her hand on my forearm and suddenly I was sobbing. She reached her arms around me and hugged me. It was the first human touch I'd had in over fifty years and I couldn't control my crying. For a few minutes we just stood there, me crying and her just hugging me, so much like I had held her all those years ago in the square after Jack had died. She was all that I had left of my life as Tabitha.

Eventually my tears ran dry and I took a deep breath. "I wish there was more I could do for you," Pippa said, "but I know that you can't stay here for long." I nodded, wiping my face and taking a few more deep breaths, still staring at the ground. "Maybe Jack can help you, though," she said, trying to smile a little bit. She held her hands out, catching snowflakes. "After all, he can't be too far away with this weather." This almost brought on a wave of fresh tears but I bit my lip and held them back. "Tabitha?" she asked. "You and Jack are still close, aren't you? Or has that changed since you both... died, or changed, or whatever this is called."

I shook my head, taking another deep breath and finally raising my eyes to meet hers. "We don't talk," I said, trying to keep the emotion from my voice. "Or at least, he doesn't talk to me." I didn't know if I wanted to get into the subject but the words came almost without me thinking about them. "I don't know what he's been like when you've seen him, if he's said anything to you or acknowledged you at all, but he's never talked to me. I guess it's because he doesn't recognize me in this shape," I said, gesturing to my feathers.

"I'm so sorry, Tabitha," she said. "He's never said anything to me either, and I wondered... But I suppose being turned into a magical being might change a person? But you've kept your loving heart. Maybe there's hope still that you and he will be friends like you were when we were all children. He always just wanted other people to be happy, and I want the two of you to be happy, too," she said, taking my hand in her old ones.

I nodded, choking back more tears and tried to smile. I didn't know what else to say. "You shouldn't stay outside, Pippa," I said, changing the subject instead. "It's so cold, I wouldn't want you to get sick."

"But are you going to be ok?"

I nodded again, smiling a little wider. "Of course, in a little bit of time. I'll be right as rain. Besides, you're right that I can't stay long. I have a job to do."

"Take care, Tabitha," she said, patting my arm. "I'll be here, ok?"

"You'll see me again," I said, realizing that she too had experienced this sort of loneliness. Jack had died when she was so young and then she'd lost her parents at some point too. "I'll come back," I promised. We didn't have to both be lonely.

She hugged me again and then turned and slowly made her way back into her house. Before she closed it behind her, she turned back. "I haven't given up on Jack," she said, looking at me with a small smile and confidence in her eyes. "Don't you, either." I nodded, but it was so hard to believe that he'd ever be anything like the Jackson Overland that I'd fallen in love with. Maybe Pippa wouldn't give up, but it was hard for me not to.

When she closed the door, I took a deep breath, knowing that I had to return to my work. I let my wings slowly lift me off the ground. It felt much harder to fly, but it was more due to the heaviness in my heart than the snow on my wings. I didn't remember having ever flown so slowly. My eyes unfocused as I rose above the town and I wrapped my arms around myself again, maybe trying to keep the cold out and maybe trying to hold my emotions in. If I just kept flying upward, I'd be at the Tooth Palace eventually, so there was no reason to pay any more attention to where I was going. Soon, clouds enveloped me.

Suddenly, in a rush of wind something darted past me, nearly hitting me. I was startled out of my daze, hovering in midair for a second, staring in the direction that the wind had blown. Another breeze swept back toward me and suddenly Jack Frost was hovering a few feet away from me. "Sorry about that," he said with a bit of a chuckle. I just stared at him. It was the first time he'd really spoken to me and he seemed sincere enough. "I've seen you around, you're the Tooth Fairy, right?" he continued. "You yelled at me for my blizzards," he laughed again.

I should've been happy that he was talking to me. But it was obvious he still had no idea who I was and I wasn't in any mood to laugh with him or try to explain who I was. I just shook my head and began flying upwards again. "Hey," I heard him say, and he flew upward to keep pace with me. He kept watching me and I ignored him. I'd lost almost everything and even though I couldn't blame him because my transformation was so much more drastic than his had been, it hurt too much that he didn't recognize me. "Are you ok?" he asked me. There was actual concern on his face. "What's wrong?" But he wasn't Jackson Overland. He wasn't the boy I'd known. He wasn't, he wasn't, things were different and he'd never be that boy again and- I gave a sudden burst of speed and shot upwards away from him. After years of teetering between the hope that we'd be friends yet again and trying to just forget about him, and this was the night he chose to be sociable? I couldn't. "Hey!" I heard him call out again but I ignored it, biting my lip and focusing my eyes upward. I didn't know if he was following me but it didn't matter, and when I arrived in the Tooth Palace, I knew he wouldn't be able to follow me there. I hovered for a minute, staring downward, but instead of sky below me, I saw the ground, the grassy hills and the pond next to the wall.

My fairies chirped happily at my return and flocked around me but I simply floated down to the pond and landed in it on my knees, looking up at the wall. Over time as more and more children began to believe in me, a mural had emerged on the wall, the previously undefined splashed of color morphing into an image of me and a bunch of children. Some fairies landed on my shoulders and my arms, putting their little hands against my feathers and looking up at me with concerned faces while still more hovered around me, giving little chirps of worry. "I'm ok," I said quietly though I don't think I was convincing anyone. Instead of explaining further, I just began reciting the names and locations of teeth that were constantly going through my head. One by one the fairies took off in flight, heading out to collect teeth and leave pennies in their places.

* * *

I didn't have the heart to move for weeks. Fairies constantly surrounded me and I realized that they could do the job just fine without me if I kept reciting names and locations for them. If I hadn't been there, they wouldn't be able to cover all of the places they needed to, so in that way I was indeed necessary and my job was still important, but they did a good job. Eventually I started leaving the Tooth Palace again and doing field work like they were doing. I had remembered too that I had to keep my promise to Pippa and keep visiting her. I saw her a few more times. Sometimes we didn't talk and other times we did, but we always kept the conversation light. The emotions that I'd gone through were enough for me and at her age there was no reason to burden her with heavy conversation. "Don't give up on Jack," she always told me, and I never had the heart to tell her that I had stopped hoping for he and I to be friends. I saw him a few more times, and he saw me, but these times it was I that flew away before he could say anything instead of the other way around.

A few more winters passed before my eyes and one year, Pippa got sick. I visited her more and more, slipping into her bedroom at night so she wouldn't have to come out into the cold. Her husband had passed on so there was no need to worry about waking anyone. It hurt to see her health decline though and as much as I tried to prepare myself for when I would lose her too, it still tore through my heart like a winter storm when she too passed away.

I once again invisibly attended the memorial service and followed the funeral procession to the cemetery, watching them lay her to rest as they had done with Isaac just years ago. I wasn't crying as much at this service as I had at Isaac's but not because I cared less. It seemed as though my heart had reached its capacity for sorrow. With Pippa gone, I had lost everything. Yes, the Moon had chosen me for an immortal life and the job of collecting teeth, but this was the last dregs of my human life slipping away.

As fate would have it, it was snowing that evening too. Instead of lingering in the cemetery, I followed the procession back to the town. I just felt empty and soon I was standing in the town square, staring at the fire. "Hey, you ok?" I heard someone say. I instantly began to hover rather than keep my feet on the ground and looked around but I didn't see anyone. "Up here," he said and then I recognized his voice. There he was, crouched on a rooftop, one hand wrapped around his staff. Jack Frost. "Why do you come back here so much? I see you other places but you're here a lot. And why are you always so sad when you're here?"

My heart didn't have room for sadness, but it had room for anger, and seeing Jack sparked that anger within me. He didn't care about me - or, well, Tabitha anyway - anymore, he hadn't cared about my family, about Isaac, or even about his own family but now he was completely ignoring the fact that Pippa had just died. But yet he had the audacity to ask me what was wrong and act like he cared? He hadn't shown Pippa a bit of caring in the rest of her life. He had just lost everything too, but here he was, making snow and sitting on a rooftop. Rage overtook the numbness and I flew up at him, grabbing him by the collar of his cloak and looking directly in his now pale blue eyes. "Jackson Overland!" I shouted, using his old name without thinking. "Do you care that you've lost everyone you loved? Do you care that the person you loved most in the world is dead now? Have you really moved on that easily?"

He stared at me, looking sort of scared. "I don't know what you-"

"You don't know what I'm talking about? Is that it? What, you've lost your memory? You've forgotten everything, you've forgotten me, you've forgotten her?" He looked less scared and more hopeful and curious but it barely even registered with me.

"Can you tell me what you mean? Please?" he said.

"If you don't care about her, then you won't give a damn about anything that I have to say," I spat furiously. "Your heart is as cold as your winter storms." I let go of his collar and took off, flying my fastest.

"Wait!" he shouted behind me. "Wait, please!" _No,_ I thought to myself. _If you're done caring, Jack, then so am I._ "Just tell me what you're talking about!" he called. He was flying after me, but soon I flew back into the Tooth Palace and he couldn't follow me there. _Maybe it's better to just forget._

* * *

There was nothing left to connect me to the human world anymore, nothing to tie me to the human life I'd once lived. The only possible connection that remained was Jack but even that wasn't real. He wasn't Jackson Overland. Everything I'd once known and loved was gone, so I found new love in my job instead. Collecting teeth, bringing happiness to kids, that was my new life. Tabitha was gone, Toothiana was all that I was now.

Without those reminders of my previous life, I found over the years that my old identity slowly slipped away. Soon, I could barely remember any of it. I'd once been Tabitha, I knew, and I had known Jack in that other life, but beyond that, none of it was important enough to remember. The grief I had felt melted away. Fifty more years passed, and then another hundred after that. I completed jobs in my hometown without even so much as a twinge of pain. I ran into Jack Frost on more occasions and sometimes he tried to ask me more questions. I didn't ignore him but I told him that I didn't know what he was talking about, and at that point I don't know if I could've told him anything anyway. I wasn't Tabitha anymore and her existence was fuzzy in my mind, like a memory from a dream.

I forgot my pain, my grief, I forgot the fact that everyone from my human life was now dead. I forgot my childhood, the snowball fights, the pastries, Jack's kisses, even my own name. I wasn't sad anymore.

I was Toothiana, the Tooth Fairy. My joy was collecting teeth and I never stopped. I rarely sat still, though eventually I spent more and more time at the Tooth Palace, telling my fairies the names of children and the locations of teeth. The Palace grew larger and grander with every year as the world below us evolved and changed too. Sometimes there was the sadness of war, and sometimes there was joy and prosperity. Sometimes there was darkness, and sometimes fear seeped into people's minds, but belief in the good in life always prevailed. Through it all, there were always teeth to collect I would cheer for the children whose teeth were white and shiny, and the wall of tooth containers grew bigger and bigger. As the value of money changed, so too changed the coins that we gave to the children. Pennies became nickels, nickels became dimes, and eventually we were giving children quarters under their pillows. My mural grew ever more and became more and more detailed. I was thrilled for the job the Moon had given me, and it seemed as though I couldn't possibly want to do anything else. Sure, it was hard work sometime, but it was always worth it. It kept children happy, and we had the power to bring back their memories of childhood whenever it was needed. I couldn't have asked for anything else and I would've loved for things to stay like that forever.

But then, three hundred years after the Moon had chosen me, the many-colored lights lit up the sky again, and I knew it was the call from the Pole, the call to gather the Guardians together. With a few fairies surrounding me, I took off and headed north.


	14. Chapter 14

Flying from the Tooth Palace down to Earth to collect teeth took a very short time because whenever I flew out of the Palace, I seemed to be right above the places I needed to go to collect teeth. In the same way, when I flew back, I never had to look for the Palace. If I flew straight upward for long enough, I would eventually be there, surrounded by the towers and my fairies. Of course, I spent the vast majority of my time in the Palace itself nowadays. As more and more children were born, it was easier for us to keep up if I stayed there and fed my fairies information. But either way, flying to various cities was very different than flying to the Pole. I was definitely a faster flyer than most other winged creatures but it did take a fair amount of time to reach North's workshop.

As I flew down through the skylight that I'd come through almost three hundred years ago, I saw that I wasn't late. Bunny was standing awkwardly by the fire, warming his feet and griping about the cold, and it seemed that Sandman had just arrived as well. I had gotten so used to rattling off the locations of teeth waiting to be collected to my fairies that it was difficult to stop and they were very enthusiastic too, but then we heard North saying, "I obviously would not have called you all here unless it was serious." I gently hushed my fairies and watched as a serious look came over North's face. "The Boogey Man was here! At the Pole!"

We all gasped. "Pitch?" I asked. I'd still never really seen him though I had caught glimpses of shadows teeming with darker shadows. I'd had my suspicions but I never brought it up to anyone. "Pitch Black?" I asked again to clarify. I knew that North had extremely tight security on his workshop - the yetis alone were terrifying and there were a handful of other tricks that could easily snare an invader as well. Could Pitch really have gotten in? My mind was racing with fears and theories and yet the flow of information regarding teeth never ceased in my mind.

"Yes," North said, looking around at us. "There was black sand, covering the globe-"

We all turned to look at the globe when Bunny interrupted. "What? What do you mean 'black sand'?"

North continued as though he hadn't heard Bunny. "And then a shadow-" he said, but Bunny interjected again.

"Hold on, hold on, I thought you said you saw Pitch." I automatically tuned out Bunny's voice and turned to my fairies, because I knew when Bunny's voice took that tone, there would be something of a debate to follow. I would notice if North was saying anything important but for the moment I rattled off more directions to my fairies. They would remember the information so that when we left, a few of them would fly back to the Palace to relay the information to the others while some of them would fly straight out on collection duty. I hovered as I spoke, my speed and enthusiasm distracting me from the direction I was drifting in until I found myself between Bunny and North.

"Tooth," North said, "can't you see we are trying to argue?"

"Sorry," I said smiling, "Not all of us get to work one night a year. Am I right Sandy?" I looked at him for a moment but new information was still pouring into my head and I announced to my fairies, "San Diego, sector two!" Even though I saw the other Guardians occasionally, for the most part I had little contact with anyone other than my fairies, so it was fairly easy to tune out conversation and focus on the teeth instead. In fact, it was hard to calm myself down enough to listen to conversation. Though I might've sounded annoyed when I made the "one night a year" comment, I hadn't meant it unkindly. I was teasing them, sure, but I knew their jobs were just as difficult as mine. And even so, I didn't mind it at all. I don't know if it was in doing the work that I had come to love it so much, or if it was something that the Man in the Moon had instilled in me when he transformed me, but it didn't matter. I barely remembered my life before becoming Toothiana - that time was past. I was the Tooth Fairy - that was all I could be and all I needed to be. I protected memories, but I didn't need to hold onto my own.

Suddenly, a bell was ringing. I was startled out of my recitation and looked down to see a cross-looking Sandy shaking one of the elves by the hat. He dropped the elf and then showed a moon over his head before pointing up at the skylight. We all turned and there was the Moon, full and imposing in the sky. "Ah, Man in Moon!" North announced, opening his arms wide in welcome. He peered back over his shoulder. "Sandy, why didn't you say something?" I smiled a little, seeing Sandy roll his eyes, and then looked back up at the looming Moon. "It's been a long time, old friend! What is big news?"

A beam of moonlight shined down through the opening, illuminating the Guardian crest on the floor of the balcony. Within the light, a shadow appeared - a man's profile. I didn't understand until Bunny said, "It_is_ Pitch." He gave North a surprised and worried look.

North looked up at the Moon and said, "Manny, what must we do?" The light on the crest shown brighter and a circular section of the floor receded, allowing a blue crystal to rise up into the moonlight.

I had never seen this process before since I was the last Guardian selected, but I'd asked North and Rabbit about how Guardians were selected and they had described it to me. "Uh, guys, you know what this means?" I asked, darting a little closer to the crystal and then back again. The gravity of the situation was beginning to sink in and I was a bit on edge which made my flying a bit erratic.

"He's choosing a new Guardian," North said, in awe.

"What? Why?" Bunny asked.

"Must be big deal," North shrugged. "Manny thinks we need help."

"Since when do we need help?" Bunny said a bit arrogantly.

Even though I was included in that 'we', the comment stung a little as I wondered if Bunny had reacted the same way when the Moon had chosen me. Pushing the thought away, I voiced my curiosity instead. "I wonder who it's going to be," I said. It could have been any number of immortal creatures, or it could be someone we hadn't met yet, just as the Moon had chosen me right after my transformation. Sandy had a shamrock dancing over his head and I voiced the thought that he couldn't. "Maybe the leprechaun?"

"Please not the groundhog," Bunny was muttering over and again to himself. The light shining out from the crystal began to take form and then there before our eyes was a softly glowing blue figure that was easy enough for any of us to recognize.

"Jack Frost," North said, his own voice sounding curious as well.

Hearing the name caused something to stir in my heart though I couldn't place the feeling. _Jack Frost?_ I thought to myself. It felt like I was forgetting something, missing something in my mind. My fairies just about melted and I knew why. Jack Frost was a lovely sight to see for sure, but my fairies and I had began speculating over his teeth - were they as white as the snow he brought down from the clouds? It seemed reasonable to suspect it and I knew for a fact that my fairies tried to get as close to them as they could whenever they encountered him during their collection runs. Because I didn't often leave the Pole, I hadn't seen him nor really thought about him in a long time. I had a connection to him though, or so it seemed. I was still missing something. I couldn't spare time to think about it now though as events were unfolding. Bunny was declaring that he'd rather have had the groundhog. I realized I had had a dazed look on my face as I tried to figure out what it was about Jack that was tickling my memory so I brought myself back to reality and said, "Well, ah, as long as he helps to, uh, to protect the children, right?"

"Jack Frost?!" Bunny said disbelieving. "He doesn't care about children!" Anger flared up inside me at that remark and I wanted to tell Bunny to shut up - but I didn't know why. I did know though that Bunny had a bit of a grudge against him. "All he does is freeze water pipes and mess with my egg hunts! He's a selfish, irresponsible-" -my anger flared a bit more with each word but North cut in.

"Guardian," he said, smiling.

"Jack Frost is many things, but he is _not_ a Guardian," Bunny said angrily.

North ignored this comment and began making preparations to have Jack brought to the Workshop. As I hovered in place, I stared at the globe, my eyes drawn to the east coast of the United States, settling on Massachusetts. My brow furrowed as I tried to remember what it was that connected me to Jack, but it felt like there was part of my mind that didn't want me to know. My eyes focused in on the town of Burgess and I tried my best to think back to my life as a human. I hadn't thought about it in years. _Jack_... I thought to myself. _Jack Frost. But... also, Jackson. Jackson... Overland?_ Was that it? The name seemed to strike a chord with my memory but a wave of hurt and regret and anger washed over me. I shook my head to clear it as my fairies flocked around me, twittering with concern. Emotions. The only emotion I'd had for so long had been joy. I hadn't had to cope with sadness, with grief, with anything negative. Sure, there was the odd tooth here and there that was in pretty bad shape, but it wasn't as though I held grudges against people for not caring for their teeth, and there were always dozens of sparkly white teeth to make up for the not-so-sparkly ones. Joy was my mode of operation. I didn't know how to handle sadness. I shook my head again and took a deep breath, emptying my mind. Then I looked at my fairies and starting listing off addresses again. I would just get involved in my work again, and forget whatever it was about Jack Frost that brought up such emotions within me. North would get me if he needed me to do anything, I knew, and until Jack was at the Pole, there was nothing else to be done.

Time passed strangely for me both because I was immortal and because I constantly operated at high speed. I vaguely noticed Bunny hoping down into his tunnels, and I don't know how long it was before a portal opened on the landing and two Yetis jumped out, holding a sack between the two of them. Bunny popped up through a tunnel and as we looked on, the bag moved. Slowly, as though coming into the light after a long hibernation, Jack Frost emerged, looking around in awe.

Jack Frost.

Up close. Ice blue eyes and snow white hair that once were both brown, and a face that my memories knew so well. Time stood still.

I hadn't seen him this close since that day all those years ago when I'd grabbed him by the collar. Grabbed him because he'd been insensitive about... about Pippa's death. Jackson Overland. Pippa Overland. My brothers, my parents, my name. Tabitha. Jack Frost was Jackson Overland, we'd grown up together, and I had loved him. It was all flooding back.

I was happy. And excited.

And hurt.

Angry.

Confused.

Jack. The boy who had taken my heart with him through a hole in the ice. The boy I had died waiting for on the coldest night of the winter of 1709.

The boy who had ignored the deaths of his family and friends.

My breath caught and I couldn't move, my wings only keeping me loft out of sheer force of habit as I stared at him. There was an ache in my chest that might've been emotional or physical or maybe both. That was why I had chosen to forget, why the memories had become so fuzzy. I shut them out because it hurt too much. But here he was and here were my memories.

Wrapped up in confusion in pain, I hovered and couldn't take my eyes away from him, every part of me but my wings frozen over like Jack's winter snow.


	15. Chapter 15

I couldn't stop staring at Jack. The emotions welling up inside me again caused me to flit back and forth and side to side in the air erratically without even noticing, because all I could see was the boy with the white hair, the boy I used to know. I barely registered the conversation going on as North made introductions. "... and the Tooth Fairy," he was saying, and it pulled me out of my thoughts. I'm not sure if it was because North had introduced me as the Tooth Fairy rather than just Toothiana, but the deluge of emotions was immediately cut off as the tooth-obsessed side of me kicked in instead.

"Hello, Jack," I said, zipping over to him. In that moment, he was no longer Jack-Jackson-Overland-Frost to me anymore - just a boy with purportedly dazzling teeth. I beamed. "I've heard a lot about you, and your teeth!" I flitted around him in excitement, as did my fairies. Because I didn't have a whole lot of interaction with other people, I didn't realize that I could sometimes be a little invasive and overwhelming. He mumbled something, looking confused, but that didn't stop me from joyously saying, "Open up! Are they really as white as they say?" My fairies drew closer for a better view as I examined his teeth and exclaimed, "Yes! Oh, they really do sparkle like freshly fallen snow!"

Something happened in my head that I didn't understand, but then one of my fairies squealed in delight, practically swooning over Jack. "Girls, pull yourselves together!" I snapped. "Let's not disgrace the uniform." They looked at me with hurt and confused eyes as I drifted back away from Jack. I'd never been harsh with them like that before, I knew, but there was a war going on between my head and my heart. I couldn't help but be obsessed with Jack's teeth - they were beautiful, after all - but when I had touched his face, the emotions that had been cut off so quickly before all came flooding back. In that moment, my memory took me back to a moment from that Winter when Jack and I were standing in the doorway to my house. He had kissed my hand, and as I looked into those eyes I was falling in love with, I had reached up and caressed his check with my other hand. He had rested his hand on mine for a moment and smiled at me before turning to make his way home. It had been my fairies' squealing that had pulled me out of the reverie. Watching Jack now as North introduced Sandman, I knew that the flashback had lasted on a fraction of a second and I couldn't help but wonder if the same thing had happened to Jack, but he didn't seem thrown off at all the way I was.

I shook my head and tried to forget it as Jack wandered aimlessly around and said, "Hey, so, anyone want to tell me why I'm here?" Sandman raised his hand and smiled, a bunch of little sand images appearing over his head in rapid succession. His face grew more serious and the images became even harder to understand. "Ah, it- that's not really helping, but thanks, little man," Jack said, wandering the other direction. He swung his staff, lightly tapping an elf holding a plate of cookies by the hat. The elf was instantly covered in frost and tipped over, and I found that I had to hold back a chuckle. A part of my mind noted that it was so like Jack to do that, but I pushed the thought away. "I must've done something really bad to get you four together," he said, and I wondered if he knew about us being Guardians. He turned to North and said with that charming half-smile that I'd always loved on Jackson Overland, "Am I on the Naughty List?"

North boomed a laughed and said, "Hah, _on_ Naughty list? You hold record." Sandy and I both chuckled and North continued, "But no matter, we overlook. Now we are wiping clean the slate."

"How come?" Jack asked.

"Ah, good question," Bunny commented, still skeptical about Jack being chosen.

"How come? I tell you how come!" North said, building up the suspense and drama of the moment. "Because now, you are Guardian!" There was suddenly a great fanfare as we were surrounded by elves playing horns and drums, and a two carrying a tray on which lay a pair of blue, belled shoes for Jack. The elves processed around Jack ceremoniously, the bells on their hats ringing with their steps as two of the yetis twirled poles with fire on each end. One of the yetis brought North the giant book from which he had read to me the Oath of the Guardians back when I was officially inducted.

Sandman raised a glass of eggnog in Jack's direction with a smile, and Bunny just continue to skeptical while Jack glanced around in every direction, looking a little overwhelmed by all the celebration. Suddenly, he struck the floor with the base of his staff, sending a frigid wind out in every direction, frost spreading quickly across the floor. North peeked out over the top of his book. "What makes you think I want to be a Guardian?" he demanded.

I looked at Jack curiously, wondering why he seemed so opposed to it, but North just laughed. "Of course you do!" he boomed. "Music!" he said, lifting his arms to cue the elves to keep playing, which the did, but Jack interrupted again.

"No music," he said, with an frustrated look that I'd never seen on either Jack Frost's face or Jackson Overland's. "This is all very flattering," he continued in a tone that did not sound flattered at all, "but you don't want me. You're all... hard work and deadlines," he said, jumping up on a table and making a face like he was trying to scare a child before sitting down again, "and I'm snow balls and fun times. I'm not a Guardian."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I said," Bunny laughed, elbowing North.

Clearly, Jack wasn't listening to North and Bunny was too determined to exclude Jack to try to help him understand, so I flew over to him. My feelings aside, if Manny had chosen him, then we would need his help to protect the children. "Jack," I said, resting my hand on his shoulder. I paused for a moment, taken in again by his eyes, his face, everything about him that I remembered so well, but I made myself focus. "I don't think you understand what it is we do." I flew over to the globe and gestured to its surface. "Each of those lights is a child."

"A child who believes," North continued. "Good or bad..." Pippa's face flashed into my head. Jack used to care so much about her and had taken care of her as well as looking out for the other kids in our town. Wouldn't her memory make him want to protect the other children as well? The emotions threatened to overwhelm me again, and I panicked. The only thing I could think to do was to examine Jack's teeth again, hoping it would help me shut down the emotions, so I flew over and opened his mouth again, trying to focus entirely on the sparkling white teeth and ignore the memories flashing through my mind. "...Naughty or nice, we protect them."

"Ahh, ahh," Jack said.

"Tooth," North said calmly, looking over at me, "fingers out of mouth."

"Oh, sorry," I said, shrugging shyly. "They're beautiful," I told Jack, and then flew over to wear Bunny and Sandy were standing.

"Ok, no more wishy-washy. Pitch is out there doing who-knows-what!" North said, sounding slightly exasperated.

Jack chuckled with disbelief. "You mean the Boogey Man?"

"Yes! When Pitch threatens us, he threatens _them_ as well!" North said explained, gesturing urgently toward the globe.

"All the more reason to pick someone more qualified!" Jack said back, sounding frustrated with North too as he turned to walk away.

"Pick? You think _we_ pick? No. You were _chosen_ like we were all chosen. By Man in Moon," and with this, North gestured at the full Moon hanging in sight through the skylight.

"What?" Jack said, turning back toward us and sounding genuinely confused.

"Last night, Jack," I said, "he chose you-"

"Maybe," Bunny cut in.

"Man in Moon..." Jack mumbled, looking out the skylight and then back toward us. "He talks to you?" _Does the Moon not talk to Jack?_ I thought. The Moon had explained to me everything about my purpose right when I woke up as a fairy. Maybe the Moon only talked to Guardians? I didn't know.

"You see you cannot say no. It is destiny," North told Jack.

Jack looked back up at the Moon again, his brow furrowed. "Why, why would he tell me that himself? Ah..." Jack shook his head and turned away, running a hand through his white hair. He sounded angry. "After three hundred years, this is his answer? To spend eternity like you guys, cooped up in some, some hideout thinking of new ways to bribe kids?" He looked at us again and then turned to the Moon and said, "Oh, no! That's not for me!" He turned quickly to us with an innocent expression and added, "No offense."

"How, how... How was that not offensive?" Bunny said with frustration. As Jack turned away again, Bunny stepped forward and crouched down, looking over his shoulder at us and said, "You know what I think, I think we just dodged a bullet. I mean, what's this clown know about bringing joy to children?"

Despite trying to ignore my feelings about Jack, Bunny's comment sparked my anger as I thought of Jack and Pippa, and I was about to say something but Jack turned toward us again with that cocky smile and said, "Uh, you ever hear of a snow day? I know it's no hardboiled egg, but kids _like_ what I do."

"But none of 'em believe in you, do they?" Bunny said, standing to his full height and stepping forward to meet Jack as he walked back over. "You see, you're invisible, mate. It's like you don't even exist." I remembered when I first found out that I was invisible and how traumatizing it was the first time I'd reached for my father's arm and my hand had gone right through him. Of course, I was visible, but had anyone other than Pippa ever come to believe in Jack enough to see him? The way his shoulders sagged and his head fell told me that no, for three hundred years, he'd been invisible to every human on earth. Bunny looked like he was going to make another comment but Jack was clearly hurt.

"Bunny," I said, warningly. "Enough."

Jack forced a laugh. "No, the kangaroo's right." I almost snorted, knowing Jack was just trying to get a rise out of Bunny - and that it would work.

"The- the what? What did you call me? I am not a kangaroo, mate." Bunny stepped closer to Jack

.

"Ohh, and this whole time I thought you were," Jack said sarcastically. "If you're not a kangaroo," he leaned toward Bunny, eyes angry and his tone suddenly more aggressive, "what are you?" Watching the exchange, I shook my head, surprised. I'd never heard Jack be that sharp with someone when he was Jackson Overland. He was usually happy, and serious when he had to be, but not mean, like that.

Bunny was just as mean though, leaning toward Jack aggressively and saying, "I'm a bunny. The _Easter_ Bunny. People believe in _me_." That comment hurt enough for me to hear and it wasn't even directed at me. Jack struggled to keep his expression angry but his lips pressed together and he looked like he was about to cry. I wanted to hit Bunny over the head and I wanted to hug Jack and tell him that everything was ok, that Pippa had believed in him even if no one else did, but with how he'd acted toward her, I wondered if that would even make a difference to him. Either way, North cut in before I had the chance to say anything.

"Jack. Walk with me." Jack hesitated for a moment, still glaring at Bunny, and then turned and walked away through the workshop with North.

When they were out of earshot, I looked at Bunny. My feelings on Jack were torn, but Bunny had been just plain mean. I had to defend him. Giving myself to the flood of emotions I'd been holding back, I turned to him. "Bunny! That was not fair!"

"What? What?" he said defensively, raising his paws.

"You know what!" I flew in front of him. "He's just a kid, you didn't have to pull that 'invisible' stuff with him."

"Gee, Tooth. Calm down," he said, backing away.

"No, you know what's it like, first starting out. I'm sure people have walked through you a few times, right? You know how that feels!" I was almost shouting now. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sandy show some elves an image of a cookie and then follow them off, presumably to where the cookies were kept. "Couldn't you see it? You really hurt him!"

Bunny opened his mouth to respond but stopped, just looking at me, before a wry smile came over his face. "Tooth," he said, "You _like_ him, don't you?"

"Wha-?" shocked out of my tirade.

He crouched down, sitting on his back paws and gave me a sly little smile. "All that fawning over his teeth, sure, but really, you just have a little crush on him, don't you?"

"No!" I said, a little too aggressively and Bunny's eyes widened. I turned around, folding my arms and biting my bottom lip. _A crush on Jack?_ I thought. No. I had loved him once, a long time ago. My eyes filled with tears as images of Jack and I flashed through my head - ice skating, snowball fights, playing with Pippa... But those times were gone. He wasn't my Jackson Overland anymore, he'd thrown away everything that his human life had meant to him. The hurt turned to anger as I thought about him ignoring his family, even as they died. Even when Pippa died, he hadn't cared. My shoulders shook slightly with the emotions I was feeling. My face scrunched up, trying to hold back the tears of both sadness and rage.

"Tooth?" Bunny said, the joking tone gradually fading from his voice. "Tooth, what is it?" I just shook my head. I heard him move closer toward me and he put his paw on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Toothiana. I don't know what I said."

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands to obliterate the tears and turned to him, putting a smile on my face that didn't feel natural. "It's fine, Bunny. It's nothing." My voice cracked a little though, betraying the emotions that I was trying again to shut out.

"Come on," he said, "you know you can tell me." For all of his manliness and aggression, his fighting spirit and his rough way of speaking, Bunny had a soft side that I'd only ever really seen when he was talking about the children who collected his eggs. "It's not like there's a whole lot of us immortals to talk to. We have to stick together. You can trust me."

I bit my lip again and looked toward the skylight, trying to blink back tears as I slowly lowered to the floor, touching down and letting my wings stop beating. "I..." I sighed and looked back to Bunny, who was now much taller than me. "I knew Jack when he was a human."

"Really?" Bunny's eyes had widened.

I nodded. "We grew up together. We were... best friends."

He smiled a little and elbowed me gently. "Maybe a bit more than friends, aye?"

One corner of my lips turned up halfheartedly. "Yeah, a bit," I admitted. "But things are different now." My tone hardened. "He's changed a lot. He's not how he used to be. He's not the Jack I knew."

"Ah," Bunny nodded, "and you don't like this new Jack?" I shook my head. "And how does he feel about you?"

I shrugged. "He doesn't know who I am. I mean," I gestured to my feathers, "I don't exactly look like the human girl he knew either."

He cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "You haven't told him?"

"No," I said, looking away again, my brow creasing in anger again. "I used to see him around our hometown and it was pretty clear that didn't care about anything from his human life, so why should I waste the effort?"

"Whoa there, wait," he said, putting his paw on my arm, "don't you think you should give him a chance? I mean, you were just telling me, he's just a kid."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Technically I am too! Jack was eighteen when he died and the Moon changed him. I was sixteen, and I died only two days after him."

"Crikey," Bunny said quietly. "You're _both_ just children." He paused and then looked at me. "Wouldn't you feel better if he-"

"No," I cut him off, shaking my head. "It doesn't matter," I said firmly. "We died as friends but now we're not. Those days are gone, so he doesn't need to know, and don't you dare tell him anything-"

There was a sudden, squeaky commotion. I looked up and saw the few fairies that had followed me darting up to the skylight where more fairies were just flying in. They chirped in alarm and I flew up to them. "What, what is it?" I asked. They all chirped urgently and all I caught was something about black sand. "Pitch," I whispered. With all of the commotion of Jack arriving, I'd totally forgotten about Pitch Black. The fairies look scared, almost in tears. "Bunny," I shouted, turning to look down at him, "something's wrong at the Tooth Palace, my fairies are terrified, I have to go. Get North, please!"

"Right!" he shouted and then bounded off through the workshop. I took off through the skylight, my fairies flying around me, and I flew toward the Palace faster than I'd ever flown before.


	16. Chapter 16

In all my years as the Tooth Fairy, I never had anything else strike terror into my heart the way that the sight before me did. Black horses. Everywhere.

They flew around my towers, chasing after my fairies who were in a panic. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered how they'd found the Palace at all, and somewhere else I registered that these creatures could only be of Pitch Black's creation, but the rest of me was filled with both rage and panic. As the horses swept past me, I could hear tiny shrieks and caught glimpses of the fairies trapped within the bellies of the beasts. Others were flying away from the horses as fast as they could while still more of them were flying in formation, attacking the horses as best they could. I flew straight into the fray, diving at one of the horses, and found that it was less dense than I thought and seemed to be made of sand. My collision with it disturbed its shape and some of the fairies trapped in its belly were able to escape, but the dark creature reared, its glowing eyes locking onto my and I felt a shiver of terror crawl down my spine and froze for a minute. I realized that letting myself look into their eyes would only scare me into stillness so I tried to avoid it.

It was chaos: horses swooping everywhere, fairies bolting around trying to escape and trying to fight and me, me diving through everything, trying to run into as many of the nightmarish things that I could but it seemed like for every fairies I manage to free, two more were gobbled up. The more I fought the creatures, the more frightened I felt but I didn't stop. Yet for all our efforts, soon almost all of my Baby Teeth had been captured by the beasts. The horses darted away from the palace and I chased them as far as I could but they outflew me. "No!" I cried, "No, no, this can't be happening, no!" The horses were quickly out of sight and I flitted back to my Palace, swooping through the structures. "Babies, are any of you still here? Please!" I cried, but none appeared. As I flew, I swooped past the honeycombed wall where the teeth were kept and the shock of what I saw nearly knocked me out of the air.

Gone. All of the teeth were gone.

My wings beat hard and I flew erratically through the structures, choking back sobs and feeling like I'd just lost everything. I didn't even notice North and the others arriving until North's sleigh crashed onto the landing of one of my towers. "Tooth! Are you alright?" I heard North call.

"They... they took my fairies," I said, my voice cracking. I couldn't calm down - I was still darting around the Palace. "And the teeth, all of them!" Suddenly, the image of the frozen lake and the hole in the ice flashed into my mind and I felt like I'd been doused in the freezing lake water. It was the pain of losing Jack all over again - except this time, it really was my fault. I'd fought so hard to save them but it wasn't enough. I hadn't stopped Jack from going to the lake, and I couldn't stop the horses from stealing my fairies away. The pain was so strong that it physically hurt. How many times could this happen to me? I had the heart of a sixteen-year-old girl; coping with this pain once had killed me - but twice? "Everything is gone," I said, drifting down to the landing of one of my towers. "Everything." I had no strength left._I've failed. I failed every single one of them._

The Guardians and Jack gathered around me. Sandman laid his hand on my shoulder but I felt like I'd never move again. Aside from my fairies, North, Bunny, and Sandy were the only friends I had in the world. But they all had their own duties as Guardians, and our encounters were typically brief, few, and far between. My fairies kept me company all the time and I needed that. Growing up in a colonial town, I'd rarely been alone. There were always chores to be done with the family, all of the other children to play with, my brothers to entertain. The fairies had filled in the void left by the death of my family, but now they were gone. With this fresh painful loss, all of the grieving I'd so firmly locked away from the years before - Jack's death, and then losing my brothers, my parents, and Pippa - it all threatened to completely overwhelm me. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the thought that I should be trying to figure out where they were taken and try to get them back, that was, if they were still... It took all the will I had to not curl up in a ball right there and cry.

Then, I heard a familiar chirp. My eyes darted up to the source of the sound and I saw a fairy peek over Jack's Baby Tooth flew over to me and landed in my outstretched hands. "Oh, thank goodness! One of you is alright," I said, looking at her and blinking back tears. My voice was shaky but still sounded so much calmer than I felt. Sorrow and anger clashed like thunder in my heart while the heavy weight of utter defeat settled into the pit of my stomach. In the past few hours I'd dealt with more emotions than I'd had to deal with in at least two hundred years. This one tiny fairy was a spark of hope but it was hard to keep that spark lit in the sea of anguish that enveloped me.

"I have to say, this is very, very exciting," a voice suddenly echoed through the palace. The sound bounced off the structures, seeming to come from everywhere at once. I instinctively cupped Baby Tooth in my hands, holding her protectively to my chest. "The big four, all in one place. I'm a little star struck." I took to the air again, having a feeling that I knew who was speaking. I looked above me and there he was. I had never seen him in person before but with the black cloak and hair, and pale skin, there was only one person he could be. Pitch Black. Inside me, anger took over sorrow. "Did you like my show on the globe, North?" he taunted. "Got you all together, didn't I?" North made a frustrated sound, and I couldn't hold back any longer.

"Pitch!" I shouted, flying up toward him. "You have got thirty seconds to return my fairies!" He swept around the roof of the structure and I darted after him but it was like he had simply disappeared.

"Or what?" The voice came from behind me and I spun around, seeing him on the roof of another one of my structures. "You'll stick a quarter under my pillow?" His arrogance infuriated me and I was about to dive at him again when North spoke up.

"Why are you doing this?" he said, sounding both angry and genuinely curious, and raising one of his swords toward Pitch. _Wait, swords?_ I vaguely remembered having seen them over North's fireplace but had never seen him use them. This of course was all just commentary running through the back of my mind.

Pitch raised a finger and pointed at the Guardians gathered on the platform below. "Maybe I want what you have. To be believed in!" His brow furrowed and suddenly he was gone again, reappearing on a landing closer to North and the others. "Maybe I'm tired of hiding under beds!"

"Maybe that's where you belong," Bunny said, stepping forward with one hand on a boomerang.

Suddenly Pitch was on the side of the tower below Bunny, looking up at him. "Oh, go suck an egg, rabbit." Bunny lunged forward, swiping at Pitch while just the tips of his back feet kept him holding onto the landing, but just like a shadow, Pitch was gone again. His voice emanated from thin air it seemed as he said, "Hang on, is that... Jack Frost?" Jack turned around, his eyes searching for Pitch, his staff held defensively in front of him. Pitch just laughed. "Since when are you all so chummy?" Pitch asked.

_We're not,_ I thought angrily, my fury at the situation leaking into my feelings about Jack.

"We're not," he echoed my thoughts.

"Oh, good, a neutral party" Pitch said, appearing across a landing from Jack, leaning casually against the cage-like structure. Jack had turned to face him but the Pitch straightened up again. "Then, I'm going to ignore you," he said, like a king scoffing at a peasant, "but, you must be used to that by now." I didn't realize right away how cruel that was, but as I thought back, when I'd been around Jack, no one had ever seen him even though he made no effort to hide. Had that not changed in 300 years? Pity and a little bit of a wanting to defend Jack crept into the writhing emotional mass in my heart, only making things worse.

Jack's face hardened but it was Bunny who reacted fastest. "Pitch! You shadow-sneaking ratbag! Come here!" he growled, leaping down a level after him but Pitch disappeared once again.

I screamed in frustrating, darting past Bunny and grabbing one of his boomerangs and then toward the last place I'd seen Pitch, determined to do whatever I could to make him sorry. That cowardly scumbag was just running away from real confrontation - but then I found out why. A black horse made of sand lunged at me from nowhere, rearing and screaming. I darted back, gasping, my eyes wide with fear, but Pitch was as pleased as ever. "Whoa-ho-ho, hey, easy, girl, easy..." he said, calming the beast. She snorted and trotted around him while he swept a bit of the black sand from her, letting it run through his fingers to the platform below where North and Sandy still stood. "Look familiar, Sandman?" he asked, a satisfied smile on his face. I could see Sandy clench his fist around a cloud of his own golden sand and glare up at Pitch. "Took me a while to perfect this little trick-" the Boogey Man said, stroking the horse's neck, his voice now affectionate and proud, "-turning dreams into Nightmares."

I flew back down to the other Guardians, suddenly more fearful than before and feeling safer with them around me. "Don't be nervous, it only riles them up more," said Pitch, sounding like what he wanted most was for us to be very nervous so that his beasts would be even more inclined to attack. "The smell fear, you know," Pitch commented, his voice again menacing. I was scared and furious and a thousand other things at the same time. _It was those shadow beasts that took my fairies!_ I fumed.

"What fear, of you?" Bunny laughed, full of bravado. I held his boomerang out to him and he took it, stepping forward with a confident smile. "No one's been afraid of _you_ since the Dark Ages."

"Oh, the Dark Ages," Pitch said fondly, reminiscing. "Everyone frightened, miserable... such happy times - for me! Oh, the power I wielded." He turned his glaring eyes on us again then. "But then the Man in the Moon chose you to replace my fear with your wonder and light, lifting their hearts and giving them hope." The words themselves seemed to disgust him. "Meanwhile, everyone wrote me off as just a bad dream! _Oh, there's no such thing as the 'Boogey Man'!_"

"Well, that's all about to change," Pitch said forebodingly, looming forward, but then turning toward the lattice-structure of the tower behind him. "Ah, it's happening already," his tone once again pleased. As we looked on, parts of my towers began to crumble slowly, their normally gleaming gold luster fading away to stone gray.

Jack turned and looked at me. "What is?" he asked, but I could even answer, gasping as my heart began beating faster in panic. Children's belief in me was fading, and I knew what that meant. The Moon had told me about it but in 300 years it had never been a problem. I could already feel energy leaving me and there was nothing I could do but drift to the ground, my wings wilting behind me.

Pitch took the liberty of answering the question for me. "Children are waking up and realizing the Tooth Fairy never came," he said, like he was narrating a bedtime story, and then he laughed. "It's such a little thing, but to a _child_..."

"What's going on?" Jack asked, looking at me again.

"They..." I managed, my voice breaking again, "they don't believe in me anymore." There were tears in my eyes again.

Jack's eyes widened in surprise and concern it seemed, while still more gold was crumbling off of the towers of my Palace, and Pitch said, "Didn't they tell you, Jack? It's _great_ being a Guardian - but there's a catch. If enough kids stop believing, everything your friends protect - wonder, hopes, and dreams - it all goes away. And, little by little," his voice grew quieter which was somehow just as scary, "_so do they_." He chuckled again, clearly pleased. "No Christmas, or Easter, or little fairies that come in the night. There will be nothing but fear and darkness, and me," he hissed. "It's your turn not to be believed in!"

Bunny didn't hesitate a second longer, launching one of his boomerangs at Pitch, who ducked, his speech interrupted. He managed to dodge the boomerang the first time and as it swung back around, he leapt off the platform, a Nightmare catching him. All of us immediately gave chase but he managed to slip away while we just landed on the grassy hills that lay underneath the towers.

"He's gone," North said.


	17. Chapter 17

Pitch had disappeared without a trace and left us standing on the grassy hills by the pond over which hung the mural of me and the children of the world. Without a present enemy to fuel my anger, sorrow came over me again and I sunk to my knees on the grass. "Okay, alright, I admit it. You were right about Pitch," Bunny was saying to North, and as North replied, Jack squatted down next to me.

"I'm sorry about the fairies," he said quietly. Even all of the confused feelings I had about Jack couldn't break through how lost I felt, even though this was probably the most sincere I'd ever heard him - Jack Frost - sound.

"You should've seen them," I said, trying to smile as Baby Tooth hovered in front of me, trying to cheer me up. "They put up such a fight."

Baby Tooth then darted over to Jack, hovering near his face and chirping. "Why would Pitch take the teeth?" Jack asked.

"It's not the Teeth he wanted," I said, looking up at him, "it's the memories inside them." It wasn't enough for Pitch to make them stop believing in me and making it impossible to carry out the simplest of my duties, but he had to destroy what the real purpose of the job was. There were people down there in the world who were slaving away over work or fighting with their family, or running away, all of whom needed to be reminded of what really mattered - the scenes contained in the sweet memories that we collected and guarded.

"What do you mean?" he asked me, his brow furrowing.

"That's why we collect the teeth, Jack," I said. "They hold the most important memories of childhood." I lifted off the ground again, flying over to the mural. Jack followed me, freezing the water where he stepped. "My fairies and I watch over them, and when someone needs to remember what's important, we help them..." I looked at the mural, thinking of my life as a human and what it had meant to me. Had I been a hypocrite when I had let all those memories slip away into the farthest recesses of my mind? "We had everyone's here," I continued. Without really thinking, I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. _He's not Jackson Overland anymore,_ I told myself, _he's Jack Frost. He's not my best friend. He's not the boy I used to know. But his memories... those are still Jackson Overland's._ "Yours too," I added quietly.

"I-... my memories?" he asked, looking up at me, clearly confused.

"From when you were young," I said, "before you became Jack Frost." _Before we lost you, before you changed, before, when you were my friend. When I loved you,_ I thought. Why was he looking so bewildered?

He stepped back, away from me. "But, I... I wasn't anyone before I was Jack Frost," he shook his head, looking up at me again.

_What?!_ Was he serious? "Of course you were," I said, now a bit confused myself, "we were all _someone_ before we were chosen." _You were Jackson and I was Tabitha and now you're Jack Frost and I'm Toothiana._

Jack's eyes widened though, like this was news to him. "What?"

"You should have seen Bunny," North cut in, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

"Hey, I told you never to talk about that," Bunny said, shushing him angrily. Indeed North never had, at least not to me.

Jack's eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed as he talked more to himself than to me. "That... that night at the pond I... I just assumed I-" he looked up at me again, eyes wide, his voice getting louder, "Are you saying... are you saying that I had a life before that?" He turned away again, pacing on the ice, "Wait... with... with a home? And a family?" He turned and looked back up at me with a surprised and hopeful smile.

I looked back at him, shaking my head not to say no but because I couldn't believe it myself. Could this even be possible? "You really don't remember?" I asked. _This... this would explain so much! The way he acted around his family, the way he- well..._ If his memories were lost, he wouldn't remember Tabitha either, so he'd never have looked for me. But even if he got his memories back, he wouldn't recognize me.

"All these years, the answers were right here! If I find my memories, then I'll know why I'm here."

_Toothiana,_ the Moon's voice rang in my head. It was like time stopped. _It is not your place to reveal to Jack his lost memories. You must not tell him anything about his life as Jackson Overland. He must discover his memories on his own._

_But, why?_ I thought back to the Moon. _Why doesn't he remember anything? Why can't I just tell him now? He wants to know, he deserves to._

_You must not tell him,_ was the Moon's only response.

I blinked at it was like not a second had passed. "You have to show me!" Jack said enthusiastically, taking to the wind and flying upward to leave the Palace.

I started to say, "I can just tell you," and Moon's orders be damned, but I suddenly froze up. I shook my head a little and tried to say, "I know all about you, Jack," but I frozen again. _The Moon,_ I thought. _The Moon is stopping me._ I sighed. "I..." What could I say to him? "I can't, Jack," I said quietly. "Pitch has them." It was true enough and would explain why I couldn't tell him myself.

He turned around, still too excited to be frustrated. "Then we have to get them back!"

I was about to respond but I suddenly became aware of that feeling of my energy draining again, and a handful of my feathers came out and drifted to the ground below me. "Oh, no," I gasped. I turned around and looked at the mural. A gray color was spreading across it like a disease, fading out the colors. "The children... we're too late!" My heart sunk. There was nothing I could do now.

"No!" North said forcefully. "No! No such thing as too late!" He rested his swords on the fur shoulders of his thick coat, his fingers tapping on their grips as he paced around. "Hmm...Wait... wait... wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Idea!" he cried, swinging his sword around and nearly hitting Bunny. "_We_-" he gestured to us Guardians with his swords, "will collect the teeth!"

"What?!" It was crazy. I was the Tooth Fairy, it was my job, I was little _made_ for it. I was half hummingbird for heaven's sake, and even I needed the help of hundreds of fairies! There was no way-

"We get teeth, children keep believing in _you_!" he said, practically bouncing with excitement, pointing at me.

I darted over to him. "We're talking seven continents - millions of kids -"

"Give me break," North said, clearly confident. "You know how many toys I deliver in one night?"

"And how many eggs I hide in one day?" Bunny added, just as smugly.

"And, Jack," North said, turning to the boy who was already grinning, "_if_ you help us, we will get you your memories."

Jack's smile grew wider and everyone else looked so determined. I couldn't help but smile a little bit, just an ounce of my joy coming back. They were right, Bunny and North both spent one day a year dashing around the whole planet, and even Sandman was constantly making rounds, bringing dreams to the children. Plus, Bunny's tunnels and North's snow globes would make up for the way the Tooth Palace allowed my fairies and I to fly to wherever we needed to be. Everyone looked to Jack, waiting to see if he'd agree. "I'm in," he said, looking excited and just as determined as the Guardians.

And there was no time to lose, so away we went.

We flew through cities faster than I would've thought the others capable of. North dashed along rooftops, going in and out of chimneys, and Bunny darted just as quickly across them, using windows to go in and out and racing with Jack it seemed who was riding the wind as quickly as Bunny could jump. Even Sandman moved faster than I'd ever seen him move. "This - is going to be - epic!" North shouted, bobbing up and down through the chimneys.

I flitted along between them with Baby Tooth along side me, calling out the addresses of the teeth, filled with the thrill of collecting teeth again. I had realized that as my powers had started to fade, the flow of information in my head of where to collect teeth had slowed and grown quiet. But now, with the excitement easily blocking out my fear and worry, the instructions were there again, clear as day. My energy was even increasing and I didn't feel drained as I had before, and none of my feathers were falling off either. That meant that the kids believed in me again! "Four bicuspids over there!" I called, pointing them in the right direction. "An incisor two blocks east! And a molar- They're everywhere!" I shouted with delight. I was flying so fast and in so many directions that I suddenly flew face-first into a billboard. "Ow..."

Jack landed on the top of the billboard. "You ok?"

I rubbed my nose and laughed. "I'm fine." Getting a look at the billboard, it was an advertisement for toothpaste no less. I flew up to him, still so excited with the job that it was all I could think about. "Sorry," I laughed again, "It's been a really long time since I've been out in the field."

"How long is a long time?" he asked.

I was about to give a real number but I realized that I probably shouldn't give Jack any hints, and the best way to do that was to tell give him a number that would put me as having been around longer than him. "Four hundred and forty years, give or take." I was spared from having to offer further explanation when I sensed a tooth under a pillow not a block away. I gasped with delight and flew off to collect it.

Under another pillow, instead of a tooth I found a small mouse with a cap and a belt. I remembered having heard something about the belief of the "Tooth Mouse" spreading throughout Europe rather than the "Tooth Fairy", but the belief in the Mouse helped me anyway despite the difference, and a bunch of mice had been recruited to help us in that division in order to keep that belief strong. Baby Tooth, however, dove at him and kicked him against a wall. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy there champ," I said, grabbing her wings gently, "he's one of us. Part of the European division." I smiled apologetically at the mouse. "_Ça va?_" He just squeaked angrily at us, so we moved on.

After several cities, we all gathered on a rooftop, each of them holding a sack filled with teeth. They seemed to have made something of a contest out of it, each trying to collect more than the others, and this had helped them collect them so fast. "Wow," I said happily, "You guys collect teeth and leave gifts as fast as my fairies." Suddenly they all looked surprised and then so did I. "You guys have been leaving gifts, right?" Sandman nodded at first and then shook his head and the others looked at each other and shrugged guiltily. "Go find quarters!" I said, "Go! And if you run out, just leave whatever else you can!"

I turned and flew upward toward the Tooth Palace with Baby Tooth, the two of us grabbing as many quarters as we could and flying back down to earth, covering as much ground as we could, delivering quarters at record speed. _I guess that one's my fault,_ I thought as I flew. _I never actually said anything about leaving quarters, did I._ Baby Tooth seemed to know what I was thinking and she chirped at me encouragingly.

After countless hours, it seemed that we had finally collected all of the teeth would could at that point, except for one in Massachusetts. My heart sank a little when we landed in the town. It had changed over time, sure, but it was still the very town in which Jack and I had grown up. I swooped in through the window, Jack following me. From the hand-drawn pictures on the wall, it was easy to guess how this particular tooth had been lost. I took it gently from under the pillow of a brown-haired little boy who slept peacefully. "Left central incisor," I whispered, "knocked out in a freak sledding accident. I wonder how _that_ could've happened, _Jack_!" I gave him a pointed look but he knew I was just teasing him.

He chuckled, looking at a picture on the wall of a very happy looking child flying through the air on a sled. "Kids, huh?" he said, giving me that charming half-smile that I'd loved on Jackson Overland's face. I almost melted right there, remembering Jack fondly as he'd once been. Realizing that I was getting distracted, I turned to the child sleeping in bed, hovering over him.

"Mm, this was always the part I liked most," I said, "seeing the kids." The boy looked so sweet, his arms wrapped around a stuffed bunny while he slept soundly in the glow of a night light. I had missed this so much. My fairies had done so much of the collecting that my trips to earth were rare and brief, and usually concentrated to one city. Sure, I got to see the collect teeth every once in a while myself, but I so rarely stopped to actually see the kids. I'd always been flying so fast. "Why did I ever stop doing this?" I asked myself, wrapping my own arms around myself.

Jack looked up at me then back at the child. "Hm... It's a little different up close, huh?"

I turned and looked at him. "Thanks for being here, Jack," I said sincerely, thinking of how he'd always been able to cheer me up and make me smile back when we were just kids. Now that I knew his memories were gone, I couldn't be angry with him, and the feelings of affection that Tabitha had harbored were beginning to creep back into my heart. I rested my hand on his shoulder again. "I wished I'd known about your memory," I said. "I could've helped you." Apparently me saying this didn't reveal too much, as the Moon didn't censor me like it had before.

"Yeah, well..." he looked off to the side and then back at me. "Look, let's just get you taken care of," he said, smiling softly and speaking reassuringly as I'd seen him talk to Pippa all the time, the same way he'd sounded when he'd told me, _People will always talk, but it doesn't matter. You being happy matters._ His face took on a determined look and a confident smile as he said, "Then it's Pitch's turn."

I was about to respond but then North squeezed in through the window saying, "Here you are!" while Sandy followed behind. I shushed North, worried that he would wake the child, but of course Sandy wouldn't be a problem. "Oh," North said, and then whispered at us, "What gives, slowpokes?" Then he looked at me hopefully. "How you feeling, Toothy?"

I beamed. "Believed in!" I whispered back.

North laughed, patting me on the back when suddenly a hole opened up in the floor and Bunny popped out. "Oh, I see how it is," he said, looking around at us, "working together and making sure that the rabbit gets last place." Both North and I shushed him but Jack didn't help.

"Nah," he said smugly, "you think I need any help to beat a bunny?" He pulled out a sack of teeth and said, "Check it out, Peter Cottontail!" I almost laughed. Even though he wasn't the Jack from my childhood, he still had that tricky and competitive side, ready to compete with anyone.

Bunny was not impressed and gave a smug smile of his own. "You call that a bag of chompers?" He pulled out his own bag which was considerably larger than Jack's and said, "Now _that's_ a bag of chompers."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," North cut in, "this is about Tooth! It's not a competition... But if it is, I win!" he said, showing the biggest bag of teeth between the three and hooting with delight, clapping his hands. Suddenly, a light flicked on, focused on North. "Oh, no..."

The boy was leaning forward on his bed, shining a flashlight at North. He gasped in disbelief. "Santa Claus," he whispered, then turned his light to Bunny, who laughed nervously. "The Easter Bunny?" Then he looked to Sandy and said, "Sandman!" Sandy smiled and gave a little wave. Then he looked at me. "The Tooth Fairy! I knew you'd come!"

I was so unsure of what to do. Children had gotten glimpses of me before and of the others too, I'm sure, but what were we supposed to say when all of us were gathered here at the end of his bed. "Surprise!" I said sheepishly, "We came!" I gave a nervous laugh.

"He can see us?" Jack whispered, stepping forward. _Right... People don't see Jack because they don't believe in him. _I thought. But how could I point that out to him?

Bunny did it for me. "Most of us," he said, not unkindly, looking over at Jack as the boy's eyes passed unseeingly right over the space where Jack was standing.

I felt bad for Jack for a moment but then realized, "Shh! You guys, he's still awake!"

"Sandy, knock him out," Bunny said, and Sandman stepped forward, looking like he was about to actually knock Jamie out with his fist, and Bunny sighed. "With the dream sand, you gumby!"

Then there came a vicious growling sound and we all looked over to the boy's bed to see a dog advancing menacingly toward Bunny.

"No, stop, that's the Easter Bunny! What are you doing, Abby, down!" the boy said, crawling forward and trying to restrain the dog.

"Alright, nobody panic," Bunny said.

"But that's a, um," Jack said with a knowing smile and chuckle, "that's a greyhound. Do you know what greyhounds _do_ to rabbits?"

"Well, it's a pretty safe bet he's never met a rabbit like me," Bunny said, unperturbed, "six foot one, nerves of steel..." Sandy rolled his eyes and conjured up a ball of dream sand. "...master of tai chi, the ancient art of..." he continued until Jack reached over to the nightstand and tapped the alarm clock there with his staff. It started ringing immediately, startling the dog who growled even more and leapt at Bunny, who shouted, "Crikey!" He backpedaled into Sandy who suddenly had to juggle the ball of dreamsand.

"Calm down!" the boy shouted to his dog as she chased Bunny around the room. Sandy was trying to take aim at the dog but she leapt into him and the ball of dreamsand sailed across the room toward North, who dodged it just in time to let it fly right into my face...


	18. Chapter 18

"Tooth," I heard someone say and I slowly opened my eyes. I was still groggy but as I looked up at Bunny standing over me, I could tell he was too. North was just climbing to his feet and Bunny helped me up. It seemed like Sandy's dreamsand worked on us immortal creatures differently than it did on humans. We should've been asleep for several hours but judging by the time on the clock it had been under an hour.

I shook my head, trying to get rid of the drowsiness but it persisted. I could feel the urge to sleep taking hold of my mind again but we couldn't afford that right now. I looked around the room, my vision still a bit blurry. The boy was asleep on his bed, and so was the grayhound, but Bunny's eyes still shifted back to the dog every few seconds. Then he perked up, his eyes widening a little bit. "Where's Sandy?" he asked, a hint of urgency in his voice.

"Sandy?" North said sleepily.

"And where's Jack?" I said, immediately alert and a bit panicky. "You don't think Pitch-?"

Bunny put his hand on my shoulder. "They'reok, Tooth," he said reassuringly though he sounded like he wasn't quite sure about it himself. "They're both fighters."

"We will find them," North said, determined. He leaned out the window, looking down. "Ah, perfect," he said, climbing out of it. "Come on, you two!" he called. Bunny and I looked out the window to see North below in his sleigh. I took to the air but I was still a little dizzy from the dream sand and it was clear that Bunny was too when he leapt out the window and nearly missed the sleigh. I let myself land in the sleigh too, still trying to blink away the sleepiness. North gave the reigns a whip and we took off, all of us looking through tired eyes for any sign of Sandy or Jack. Off in the distance we saw faint flashes of gold and blue. "There!" North shouted, turning the sleigh in that direction. While I sat there, the dreamsand started to take effect again and I must've dozed off, and next thing I knew, the sleigh shook violently with a crash and as adrenaline coursed through my veins I was definitely more away. North and Bunny seemed pretty startled too and I figured that they'd probably dozed off as well, leaving the sleigh unguided, hence the crash.

I turned, looking back just in time to see Sandy pulling Jack up into the sky and tossing him up where he could get a hold of the wind himself. They were surrounded by Nightmares. "North!" I shouted, "Up there!" He swung the sleigh around and we were suddenly gaining altitude, passing through a cloud layer and up into open sky. I leapt out of the sleigh, more steady in my flight now because all traces of the dreamsand had been obliterated and I was feeling so much better as more kids began believing in me.

Nightmares were everywhere, darting around Jack and Sandy and now North and Bunny and I as we joined the fray. Out of all of the Guardians, I was the least qualified for this kind of fighting; North had his swords, Sandy could make his own weapons out of Sand, Bunny had his boomerangs, and Jack, though not yet a Guardian, was obviously a great fighter with his staff and his ice powers. I couldn't do much but I did discover that if I flew hard and fast enough at a Nightmare, I could break right through it, sending the black sand everywhere an unable to reform unless Pitch took care of it personally. The Nightmares were focusing mostly on Jack and Sandy, and as a few of them surrounded Jack I darted around him, taking out at least five of the hellish creatures. Bunny darted out of the sleigh, landing on a rooftop far below and using his boomerangs and soon leaping back up into the sky. It was so difficult to see as we all dashed through the clouds, and at one point I saw Jack lose his staff and begin to fall through the sky. I rushed to help him but was immediately surround by Nightmares. When I could see again, Jack had regained his staff and landed on one of the sleighs wings. I flew to the sleigh, taking a moment to breathe and rest.

The air around us started to clear and I realize that all the Nightmares had swept up into a huge circle around Sandy. He was fighting, flashes of golden-yellow seeping through the overwhelming black, but Sandy's whips were only tiny glimmers of light in the mass of the black horses. "We've gotta help Sandy!" Jack shouted. North pulled his sleigh around, heading up toward the fight. They disoriented me for a few seconds and then inexplicably darted away, and I looked up just in time to see Pitch release a sharp arrow of shadows and sand at Sandman who had his back turned. Sandy turned to face Pitch and I could see the patch of black on his back spreading like a disease. He faltered, the darkness beginning to overpower him, seeping into the golden cloud that was keeping him aloft. When we'd all been fighting the Nightmares, adrenaline rushing through my veins had eradicated fear, but now fear struck through me like the arrow that had hit Sandy and my blood ran cold. "NO!" Jack screamed, leaping off the sleigh and flying through the air toward the writhing mass of black sand with the wind at his back.

I made to fly after him but a group of Nightmares darted in front of me and without the quick start because they were so close, I couldn't get through them. They disoriented North too, the sleigh faltering in the air. It was difficult to keep my gaze on Sandy with all the black sand around me but I could see his small circle of golden sand disappearing rapidly around him. We were immortal creatures yes - immortal in the live-forever way, but not in the invincible-so-cannot-die way. Sure, lack of belief in us could make us disappear, but the right kind of attack could destroy us too, and that was what was happening to Sandy. _No,_ I shouted in my head, _I am done watching people I love die!_ He stood up defiantly, the darkness about to take him away completely. The Nightmares around me darted away and I flew after Jack again. He slowed down for a second, and the with a furious shout darted toward the Nightmare mass again, but with a wave of his arms, Pitch swept the black sand into a huge wave. Jack rushed toward it head on but when he realized what he was facing, he backpedaled in the air. It wasn't enough though. The sand overwhelmed him and suddenly he was completely gone from view. "Jack!" I shouted behind him but with the wind and the sound of black sand rushing through the air, I'm sure my voice was swept away. _Not you too! Not you too, Jack!_ I stopped in midair, but the sleigh flew up beside me and Bunny grabbed hold of me, pulling me into it. I watched in horror. There was absolutely nothing I'd be able to do against the black mass. Sandy was gone. Jack was -

But suddenly there was a huge flash of blue light, shining through all of the black. I could see Jack again as ice and light sparked out around him, like he was a blue-burning firecracker. With another shout, he sent the ice through the wave of Nightmares, the attack overtaking the black sand easily and heading straight for Pitch. As the powerful sparks of ice hit him and knocked him nearly out of the sky, the whole wave of blue ice exploded in a shower of sand and ice crystals. As these fell away, I could see Jack shooting away from the explosion - but his limbs were spread strangely, and he wasn't moving toward us._He's not flying, he's falling!_ I realized. I shot up into the air again, catching him around his middle and lowering him back down into the sleigh. "Jack?" I was completely shocked by what I had just seen. His eyes opened. He was alive. "How did you do that?" for some reason was the first question out of my mouth.

"I..." he started, completely out of breath. "I didn't know I could." He sounded just as surprised as the rest of us.

"You ok, kid?" Bunny asked, and if I wasn't running so high with the emotions of panic, fear, and loss, I would've smiled to see Bunny actually caring about Jack.

"Yeah, I think so," he said, nodding, but closing his eyes tight and rubbing his head. "What... what just happened?" he asked quietly. We knew he wasn't asking for a literal narration, but instead about Sandy and how he himself could've had the power to tear apart so much of the black sand.

"North Pole," North said quietly, sounding sad. I looked over and saw that he'd spoken to one of his snow globes. He threw it out into the air in front of the sleigh and a portal opened. The sleigh flew through it and we were momentarily surrounded by flashing colors until we flew out under a light blue sky, snow glistening below us and the lights of the workshop gleaming in the distance.

We were all silent and the only sound was the wind rushing by us. Jack was bent over, his head in his hands. I didn't know if it was exhaustion or grief. I was so relieved that he was ok, but then I thought of Sandy, images of the black sand overtaking him flashing through my head. Grief struck through my own heart and I wrapped an arm around Jack. He was shaking. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the thought that I would've liked to kiss his head and tell him that everything was ok, but the thought was swept away by pain and sadness and everything was not ok. Bunny reached out and put a hand on North's shoulder. No one said anything for the rest of the flight.

North landed the sleigh not so gracefully on a receiving dock. Elves and Yetis gathered around, taking care of the sleigh and glad to see us back but their expressions changed quickly when they saw us joylessly climb out of the sleigh. We were all a little shaky and I kept my arm around Jack, supporting him because he wasn't entirely recovered from the firecracker attack he'd sent at Pitch. We followed North into the Workshop, coming to the landing in front of the globe. We huddled around the fireplace, just looking into it in silence. There was nothing we could say. I let Jack slide gently to the ground and knelt beside him. Elves and Yetis gathered around North, making questioning sounds, but he waved them off. They backed away and out of sight for a few minutes but a few Yetis returned, handing us each a cup of hot chocolate. Six elves carried three plates of cookies, setting them down in front of us. I looked at them briefly but my stomach was twisted into knots and I couldn't bring myself to even reach out for one. I took a sip of the hot chocolate though, hoping that its warmth would calm the cold grief inside me, but though my limbs felt the relief of the warmness, my heart did not.


	19. Chapter 19

I'm not sure how long we all sat there. There was an empty ache in my heart. I hadn't dealt with this kind of loss in decades, centuries even. After all those years I'd managed to push the grieving to the back of my mind where it wouldn't hurt me constantly, but losing people you loved, that wasn't something that anyone could easily forget. And now it was happening again.

Through the emotions pushed thoughts about the fight against Pitch. We couldn't just stop because we'd lost one of the Guardians. Jack's blue ice-firecracker attack had been powerful but not enough to stop Pitch from continuing his onslaught of fear. We would have to get up. We had to keep fighting - and we had to fight all the stronger now since we'd lost one of the Guardians. I told myself to get to my feet, I willed my wings to start beating and lift me off the ground, but it was like Sandy's death was a weight on my shoulders, pulling me down, keeping me from moving.

After sometime, North rose to his feet. "We must put to rest his memory," he said quietly. The words rang in my head, drawing out a long-repressed memory. _It's time we have a service for Tabitha and put her memory to rest._ The words echoed in my head and the image of my hometown's leader talking to my father came forward through the other memories I'd pushed away. Those 300 years ago, the town I grew up in had raised a headstone bearing my name to commemorate the life I'd lived and the death that had taken me away. It was time for us to do the same for Sandman.

Bunny climbed to his feet and then offered his paw to me, helping me up. Jack stood up too, but walked a few feet away and stopped, his back turned to us. I didn't know how this would effect him. He's known Sandy of course, but I wasn't sure how close they'd been since Jack wasn't yet a Guardian. Bunny and I both turned to North who had turned his gaze upward to the skylight where the Moon hung over us. "Manny, what do we do now?" he asked. I realized that this could very well have been the first time a Guardian had died. The others had never spoke of any other Guardians existing before I became one, so this was a new experience for all of us. In response to North, a beam of moonlight shown down through the opening in the roof, landing slightly forward from the Guardian crest on the floor. A triangular section of the floor turned gold and an image of Sandy appeared there.

Yetis and elves gathered around us, forming a circle around the crest while Bunny, North, and I stood at the top point of the triangle. I looked over to where Jack had been standing but he wasn't there anymore and in his place, some of the yetis were walking forward holding candles, which they set down in a circle around the crest. Three of them handed a candle each to me, Bunny, and North. Like the hot chocolate had, the candle in my hands radiated heat that seeped through my skin, fighting off the chill of the arctic snow, but it couldn't warm the cold emptiness in my heart.

The workshop which was perpetually full of the noises of toys being built and jingling elf hats was now quieter than I'd ever heard it. Even the crackling of the fire in the massive fireplace seemed to grow more quiet than usual. Now, each face was solemn, turned downward with either sorrow or respect for Sandy's memory. North made a sound that seemed like he was trying to hold back tears, and I drew my gaze away from where Jack had been standing to see North glance upward to where the Moon still hung in the sky. He gave a little nod of his head before turning to Bunny and I, nodding again. He stepped forward, setting his candle at one of the points of the triangle. Bunny stepped forward next, setting his candle at the other point of the triangle. Then it was my turn. I knelt down at the tip of the triangle, looking at the silhouetted image of Sandy. I tried to hold back my tears but then wondered what the point of that would be. We were all grieving. They slipped from my eyes and down my cheeks as I set my candle down at the top tip of the triangle. It was ironic; Sandy's death had come in the form of darkness bred by fear, and here we were, offering dozens of little lights to the memory of him. If only there had been enough light in the sky when we'd been fighting Pitch, would that have saved Sandy? Would he have been ok? And as we stood here overwhelmed with grief, were these lights the only thing keeping the darkness of our own fears at bay?

After a moment, I lifted off the ground, hovering between Bunny and North, who looked over at me. He took a deep breath like he wanted to say something but his brow was still scrunched with sorrow and it looked like he didn't know what to say. He sighed and turned his gaze back down toward the triangle. There was one thing different about this loss and all of the loss I'd gone through before. When my brothers had died, when Pippa had died, I had been alone in my grief. At least here I stood with friends at my side, friends who knew the exact same pain I was feeling. I looked over at Bunny, reaching my hand out to him, looking for comfort in closeness and hoping it might comfort him too. He took my hand gently and I could tell that he too found some sort of solace in that touch. I held my other hand out to North and he took it, squeezing mine gently. Being there between them, the warmth of the bond we shared warmed me a little, easing the ache in my heart a little bit. That alone though could not entirely fight off the hurt.

The quiet ringing of bells broke the silence as the elves began tipping their hoods back and forth. The chime of these bells usually brought joy and excitement but now their melody was slow and sad, an elegy ringing with the feelings that mere words couldn't express. We stood there for a long while and eventually the candles began to gutter as each flame reached the end of its wick and was extinguished in a pool of melted wax. The bell music faded away and the room emptied as the elves and yetis shuffled away, taking up their stations again but working much more slowly and quietly than usual. Soon, only Bunny and North and I were left standing at the crest.

I took a deep breath and looked around. There was still no sign of Jack. "Where's Jack?" I asked no one in particular.

"I think I know," North said, turning and heading toward his office.

I made to follow him but Bunny, held me back, still holding onto my hand. "Tooth," he said quietly. He didn't have to say anything else because the thought had gone through my head too. Jack had walked away from the ceremony, not because he didn't care but more likely because he was grieving in his own way in solitude rather than surrounded by other people. It probably wouldn't help to have all of us around him just yet. It was better to let North handle it alone. Bunny went and sat down by the fireplace again, this time with his back toward it instead of facing it. He patted the floor next to him and I flew over and sat down.

Elves pattered around the crest in front of us, taking up the candles and carrying them away, occasionally looking over at us. Bunny's arms rested on his knees and he was looking at his paws. "Was there anything else we could've done?" he asked. "To save him?"

"I don't know," I replied, looking down at my own hands. "We fought as hard as we could. I think he... I think Sandy knew that. I don't think he'd be mad." We sat in silence for a little bit longer but then it was my turn to ask a question, one that was probably on everyone's mind. "What do we do now?"

Bunny looked up at the globe and so did I. There were many lights still lit, but here and there they were going out. "We keep fighting," Bunny said, determination slowly overcoming the sadness in his voice. "They still need us. We can't stop just because... We can't stop now. Sandy wouldn't want that. Those kids still need us and Pitch is still out there." Even as we watched it seemed like more and more of the lights were winking out. Bunny turned to me with a hint of a smile turning the corners of his mouth up. "We can still do this, Tooth."

I wanted to believe Bunny but it was hard to think that we could overcome this loss and still stand up against Pitch and win. But maybe it was this hurt that would drive us to fight even farther. Maybe that would help us tap into a deeper strength within. Jack had just found out about a power that he didn't know he had, driven by the desire to save Sandman from the Nightmares. Maybe the rest of us would find some power deep inside us as well. My mind was slowly drawn back to Jack and I wondered how he was handling this. I realized that he hadn't gone through this before like I had. When he'd become Jack Frost, his memories had been taken away. He hadn't watched his parents, friends, sister die the way I had because he hadn't known anything about them. And as far as I knew, he hadn't experienced loss like this while he was human either. Losing Sandy was hard on all of us, but maybe on Jack most of all. Would he have the strength to keep fighting too?

_I hate this!_ I thought suddenly, running my fingers through the crest of feathers on my head and holding them there tightly while the rest of me curled into a ball. _I wish I'd never become the Tooth Fairy, I wish Jack wasn't Jack Frost, I wish none of this had happened!_ I was sobbing like I hadn't in centuries, and Bunny wrapped an arm around my shaking shoulders. _I want things to go back to how they were. I want my old life back, I was Jackson Overland back, I want those days in the snow back. I want it to be how it was before Jack died. I want his kisses, I want to hold his hand again, I want all of this to go away!_

But it wouldn't go away. I knew that. I was chosen to be a Guardian for a reason, and so was Jack. The Moon hadn't just randomly picked to kids to make immortal, it was the two of us for a reason. I took a few deep breaths, stemming the flow of tears and wiping the rest of them from my face. "You're right," I said, lifting off the ground again. Now there was determination in my voice too. I turned to Bunny. "You're right. We have to keep fighting. For the children."

"Right," Bunny said, standing up too and smiling a bit, but his face turned serious very quickly. "But we're going to have to do it fast," he said, looking past me.

I turned around and looked at the globe. "The lights," I said, my eyes widening a little bit. "Look at how fast they're going out!"

I hadn't heard North or Jack return to the fireplace area but Jack flitted right up to the globe. "It's fear," he said, his own eyes widening a little bit. "He's tipped the balance." He looked down at us, his face worried. I still wondered how Jack was doing in terms of the loss of Sandy but for the moment, all of our grief was pushed aside because we knew we still had a job to do.

"Hey," Bunny said, "buck up, you sad sacks." There was a little bit more of a spring in his voice and he leapt forward and onto the control panel in front of the globe, looking back at us while Jack flew over to us. "We can still turn this around!" He sounded a little more confident now, too. "Easter is tomorrow, and I need your help. I say we pull out all the stops and we get those little lights flickering again!" A genuine smile came to his face. The hope that Bunny radiated was infectious and soon we all had a bit of a smile.

North turned and walked through his workshop, us following behind. "Bunny is right!" he said as we took a little elevator down to a different level of the building. "As much as it pains me to say it, old friend, this time, Easter _is_ more important than Christmas." I chuckled, catching Jack's eye as he snickered a little too.

Bunny looked completely astonished and looked around at all of us. "Hey, did everyone hear that?" He asked, clearly wanting witnesses for the moment when North put Easter ahead of Christmas, which probably wouldn't happen ever again.

North pressed on, saying, "We must hurry to the Warren. To the sleigh!"

At this though, Bunny hopped in front of him. "Oooohh no, mate," he said with an impish grin. "My Warren, my rules. Buckle up!" he said to North, about to get his revenge for the sleigh ride earlier. He tapped his foot on the ground and a huge tunnel opened up below us. I could've just flown my way through Bunny's tunnels but what fun would that be?

I let myself drop into the tunnel with everyone else, just barely hearing North cry out "Shostakovich!" in surprise.


	20. Chapter 20

It was a quick journey through Bunny's tunnels but I knew we must've gone a long way to get all the way from the North Pole to the Warren. Bunny had told me about it but I'd never been there before. As we all tumbled out into the open space, I flitted into the air immediately to avoid being caught up between North and Jack and the two yetis who had apparently come along with us. The yetis fell out on their backs along with North and an elf tumbled out of the tunnel too, bouncing off of North's belly. We all chuckled a bit as we caught our breath and as North sat up he said, "'Buckle up,'" with a laugh, "Is very funny."

We all turned to Bunny and with a proud smile, he said, "Welcome to the Warren." I shook off the slight dizziness from the journey through the tunnels and looked around, gasping at how beautiful it was. The land was curved with rocks and hills and everything was covered with layers of green moss. Flowers grew everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them: poppies, lilacs, bluebells and daisies of dozens of different colors, along with bushes and brightly colored toadstools. Warm sunlight shown down on everything and it looked like paradise. It was so funny at first to see Bunny, the tough, fierce fighter here among all the flowers and greenery, but his demeanor often made it easy to forget that he was in charge of a holiday that was born of creativity, children's laughter, and the new life of Springtime. He had a smile on his face and his green eyes sparkled with happiness. This was Bunny's soft side, what he had been chosen for. He was, after all, the Guardian of Hope.

Behind Bunny stood two huge egg-shaped rocks with carved faces who also turned us, like they were interested that the Warren had visitors. They reminded me of statues I had seen elsewhere in my flights around the world... _Of course,_ I thought, chuckling to myself, _The statues on 'Easter Island'. Very clever, Manny._

Suddenly, Bunny perked up, turning around. His ears twitched and he sniffed the air. "Something's up," he said quietly. As we watched, dozens of little eggs on tiny feet came running out of another tunnel. My eyes widened and I couldn't help but smile at how cute they were, but clearly something was wrong. Bunny whipped out his boomerangs, North grabbed his swards and Jack readied his staff so I prepared myself too to fight whatever danger it was that would come looming out of the darkness of the tunnel. Bunny let out a shout and rushed forward, us following close behind as a small shape came running out of the tunnels but we all skidded to a halt when we saw...

A tiny little girl in pajamas, he blond hair flying behind her and three eggs clutched in her small arms. She stopped too, and looked up at us in apparent awe. Everything was quiet for a second and then Jack said, "Sophie?"

Bunny and North quickly hid their weapons behind their backs and we all hurriedly smiled, not wanting to frighten her. She suddenly got distracted when she saw the elf from North's Workshop, dropping the eggs and running after him. He darted away, the bell on his hood jingling as he looked back over his shoulder at the enthusiastic little girl running after him, shouting, "Elf, elf, elf!"

_Sophie..._ I thought. Bunny turned to watch her and said, "What is _she_ doing here?" He turned to North.

"Uh..." North quickly patted his coat pockets, his eyes widening, and then said, "Snowglobe..."

_Of course!_ I thought. Sophie was Jamie's little sister. Even though there were millions of them, I had a good memory for the children of the world. _She must've somehow gotten hold of one of North's snowglobes when we were all knocked out by the dreamsand in Jamie's room._

"Crikey, somebody do something!" Bunny cried, looking around at us, his eyes landing on Jack.

"Don't look at me," Jack said, taking a step back and chuckling, "I'm invisible, remember?"

I laughed too, and then a memory popped into my head; long ago when I'd first become the Tooth Fairy, the first time a child saw me... Pippa's eyes had lit up with wonder. Maybe the sight of me would have the same effect on Sophie. "Don't worry, Bunny," I said, flying over him to where Sophie stood. "I bet she's a fairy fan," I said in a singsong voice, letting her see my flittering wings and spreading out my tail feathers. I leaned down toward her. "It's ok, little one," I said.

"Pretty," she said, her eyes widening just like Pippa's had that day.

"Awww," I said, smiling. She was so precious, so sweet and innocent with her bed-head-hair her little polka-dotted pajamas. "You know what," I said, moving closer. "I've got something for you." Being the Tooth Fairy, I always and immediately associated children with teeth and it didn't cross my mind that a child might not be as excited about them as I was. I held out a handful of little baby teeth - not my fairies, but actual teeth - and said, "Here it is, look at all the pretty teeth with little blood and gum on them!" _Wait..._ I thought, realizing how that statement might sound to someone who didn't admire teeth on an daily basis. She looked from the teeth up at me and screamed, turning and running away.

Jack laughed and I wanted to smack my forehead as I realized how bad of a plan that had been. "Blood and gums?" he said, raising an eyebrow at me. He leapt into the air and landed on a rock. That particular egg-shaped rock had an indentation in it into which Sophie, distracted again already, had chased another dozen eggs. "When was the last time you guys actually hung out with kids?"

"Peek-a-boo!" Sophie shouted at the eggs and they came running out of the little cave, all heading toward Bunny who protectively shooed them behind him.

"We are busy bringing joy to children," North explained, "we don't have time..." he paused as Sophie ran by, giggling and chasing a few brightly-colored butterflies, "for children." We all looked at each other and realized how silly that sounded.

Jack leapt down from the egg statue, saying, "Hmm... If one little kid can ruin Easter..." He conjured up a single snowflake, something I didn't know he could do and continued, "then, we're in worse shape than I thought." He sent the snowflake drifting away and it landed on Bunny's nose.

Bunny blinked in surprise but then a smile came over his face. He called Sophie over and led her up a hill to where several pink and yellow flowers stood. "Want to paint some eggs, yeah?" he asked her as the flowers began to open up, each revealing another white egg.

"Ok!" Sophie said, clapping her hands and smiling.

Suddenly eggs were rushing out from everywhere. There were hundreds of them. "Rimsky-korsakov! That's a lot of eggs!" North exclaimed, watching them in wonder.

Jack, who was crouching on top of his staff, said "Uh... how much time do we have?" I wondered that too for a moment but Bunny had told me throughout the years about how his Warren had grown to help him with the process of painting the eggs and getting them all where they needed to be.

Bunny had Sophie on his back and was darting around the Warren while she cried, "Weeee!" in enjoyment. The eggs rushed down pathways covered in bluebells which let out misty puffs of multicolored paint. Before our eyes the eggs became all different shades of blue and yellow and purple and pink. I followed them along, watching in awe. The elf and Baby Tooth followed the eggs around, playing with them and watching as they became more and more colorful.

"Alright, troops," Bunny said, "it's time to push back. "That means eggs everywhere! Heaps of you in every high-rise, farmhouse, and trailer park! In tennis shoes and cereal bowls! Oh, there'll be bathtubs filled with my beautiful googies!" The eggs trotted along the pathways and eventually jumped into a river flowing with sparkly purple paint. Others trotted along flower stems and slipped into little curls hanging off the plants, popping out the bottom with bright swirled patterns on them. "There will be Springtime on every continent," Bunny said joyously, "and I'm bringing Hope with me!"

North picked one up and its little legs flailed. "Ok, that's... little strange," he said, his eyebrow raised as he examined the egg.

"No, mate," Bunny said, eggs crawling all over him and butterflies fluttering around him, "that's adorable." Bunny looked so sweet - so different from his normal cocky and rough demeanor. But my eyes were drawn elsewhere.

As Sophie played with the eggs, Jack followed her around and played with her. His eyes sparkled and he laughed, obviously having a ton of fun with her. It seemed to come so naturally to him to play with a little girl and in my mind he was once again Jackson Overland, playing with his little sister. I hadn't seen him like this in three hundred years and it warmed my heart. It was a more wonderful sight to me than even the newly painted eggs running around. That was part of why I'd fallen in love with Jack in the first place. He was so kind and never thought himself above playing with a child. He was so good with Sophie, treating her just like he'd treated Pippa centuries ago. I wondered if he was thinking about her too but then I remembered that he'd lost his memory and had no recollection of Pippa at all. _How can he not remember, though?_ I thought. It was so much like old times. He was acting exactly the same way he'd acted with her, scooping Sophie up playfully in his arms and holding her so that she could see the eggs in every direction and then letting her down so that she could run around more. _Oh, Jack,_ I thought, smiling, _If only you could see yourself right now, if you could remember your old life, if you could remember Pippa._ Here, away from all the danger and fear that had been plaguing us since Pitch had appeared in the Tooth Palace, away from the urgency and panic that we'd all felt since North had called us to the Pole, I could finally look at Jack without frustration at regret about his changing. Despite the white hair and blue eyes, he was still the same boy who had played with his sister, played with all of us whether it was hopscotch in the Spring or snowball fights in the Winter. His name was Jack Frost now but in his heart that was no different than Jackson Overland.

I flew along after him, and he glanced over his shoulder at me, smiling. Sophie had warmed up to me again after the whole baby teeth incident and she took my hand and led me around - with me still in the air - showing me all of the different eggs, saying, "Pretty, pretty, pretty!" Jack and I both chuckled as we played with her. She was having the time of her life but I still found it hard to keep my eyes away from Jack, who caught me looking at him more than a few times. He chuckled a little but his smile seemed a bit more sincere than his normal mischievous one. It was almost the way that he'd smiled at me back before we'd both changed. Being there with him, having fun and watching him have fun too, made me so happy, and it was a different sort of happiness that I developed over the years for the teeth I collected. I loved my job but this was a different kind of... _Love?_ I asked myself. Maybe that was it. Maybe, even after all of this, I was still in love with him. I'd repressed the memories so determinedly but here in this warm and happy environment, the feelings I'd had for him before bloomed up from my heart and I realized that it was true. I still loved Jack. And it felt like I was falling in love with him all over again.

Sophie ran over to Bunny again as all the eggs began heading for a a part of the Warren that had seven big tunnel openings. Bunny nodded over behind her and said, "Ooh, what's over there?" and smiled as Sophie joyfully ran over and picked up an egg that was wandering around by itself. She ran back to Bunny who said, "Oho, that's a beauty!" He then took the little girl's hand and leading her toward the other tunnels where the other eggs were headed. "Now, all we gotta do is get him and little mates through the tunnels, to the top, and we'll have ourselves Easter."Jack smiled at me and then walked over to Bunny. I knew Jack and Bunny hadn't really gotten along but maybe this would be a good time for them to talk a little. North came over to me and nodded toward them and winked at me, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

After a couple minutes, Sophie curled up in Bunny's arms and nodding off. North and I walked over to them. I knelt beside Bunny and looked at the precious little girl, the memory of Pippa so strong in my head. Normally when I saw children these days, they were asleep, and being able to play with a little girl again had been so much fun. "Poor little ankle-biter," Bunny said affectionately, "look at that, all tuckered out."

"I love her," I said, wishing we could keep her with us. "I think it's time to get her home," I said, reaching out as for her. Bunny gently handed her to me.

"How about I take her home?" Jack said.

"Jack, no," I said. Despite the reprieve we'd had in the Warren, Pitch and his darkness still loomed outside the safety of Bunny's home and leaving meant that we'd be in danger again - but it was a slim chance that Pitch would come after me now. He'd already hurt me enough by taking my fairies, so I wasn't a threat to him. But Jack... "Pitch is out there-" I started.

"No match for this," Jack cut in, gesturing to his staff. With his so familiar smile and with what I'd seen him do to Pitch before, I believed him, but Bunny spoke up.

"...Which is why we need you here, with us," he said.

"Trust me," Jack said and though I did, I didn't know if Bunny would. "I'll be quick as a bunny," Jack continued with a smile at bunny, who chuckled and nodded first at Jack and then me. I handed Sophie to Jack, knowing that she was in good hands. Jack took her and flew off down one of the tunnels, presumably toward the surface, with Baby Tooth darting off after him.


	21. Chapter 21

North and I sat next to Bunny and we all caught our breath after all of the excitement. It would be a while before the eggs made it to the surface and we couldn't exactly hunt for Pitch so all there was to do now was wait. That was definitely ok with us. It was nice to have a little while just to sit down and recover. The loss of Sandy still weighed heavily on my mind and I'm sure it was in North and Bunny's thoughts too, but I tried to let the thoughts slip away as I looked out over the beautiful flowers and greenery.

"That was good work," North said, patting Bunny on the back.

"Thanks, mate," Bunny said with a smile as we watched the rest of the eggs head off toward their tunnels. "This'll get the kids believing again. Pitch won't stand a chance against all the happiness when they start finding the eggs." This was the happiest I'd seen Bunny in a long time.

"I'm glad Easter's going to go so well," I said, resting a hand on Bunny's shoulder.

"Ah, but that's not the only thing going well, is it?" he said, with a mischievous look at me that Jack would've approved of.

"What are you talking about?" I said innocently though I thought I had an idea as to what was coming next.

"You know what I'm talking about," he said, elbowing me gently. "And you said you two weren't friends anymore," he laughed, shaking his head. "I saw the two of you, it looked like you were _more_ than friends."

I pushed Bunny playfully and he toppled over, laughing. "Wait, wait, what is this?" North said, looking from me to Bunny and then back at me.

I sighed and smiled. _I guess everyone is going to know,_ I thought. "I knew Jack when he was human," I said. "When we were both human."

North's eyes widened. "Shostakovich!" he exclaimed quietly. "Why did I not see this sooner?"

"Well, Jack lost his memory," I reminded him.

"But you've told him now, haven't you?" Bunny asked. "I mean, you two are all chummy all of a sudden."

"No, he still doesn't know," I said.

"Why not?" North asked.

"I can't," I looked up at them helplessly.

"What do you mean, Tooth?" Bunny said, looking concerned.

"The Man in the Moon," I said, sighing again. "He told me that it's not my place to tell Jack about it."

"But this is very important," North said, "maybe you should-"

"I've tried," I cut in. "I can't. I mean, I literally can't." They both had confused expressions and I gestured toward my throat. "Whenever I try to say something about it, it's like my throat closes up. For some reason, I can't get the words out and I don't mean because I'm choked up by emotion." I looked up to the sky. "I think Manny's doing it. He won't let me." I looked back at Bunny and North. "And I'm willing to bet that neither of you would be able to tell him either."

"But why?" Bunny asked. "Why won't he let you tell him?"

"I am sure Manny has a good reason," North said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.

"He said that Jack has to discover the memories on his own," I shrugged. "I don't know but I guess the Moon has a plan." I sighed again. "We were all chosen for a reason. Maybe this is somehow part of Jack's reason."

"He'll find out eventually, one way or another," Bunny said.

I wasn't sure anymore. Even if we retrieved Jack's tooth box, the memories within might have nothing to do with me. The teeth didn't contain all of the memories of childhood, just a few. And would I have the courage to tell Jack about myself if the teeth didn't make him remember me? I hadn't thought about it before and sure, I wanted to tell him, but the thought was daunting. What would he say, what would he think? Would he be glad to see me? Would he be mad that I hadn't told him before? "Maybe," I said quietly.

"Huh?" Bunny asked.

"Maybe he'll find out."

"What-" he started, about to ask, I'm sure, what I meant by that, but suddenly there was a pattering sound and eggs came rushing back out of all seven tunnels. Bunny stood up, his ears twitching. "What's going-" but then we heard it. From deep within the tunnels came the angry neighing of horses that we'd all heard too many times before and suddenly Nightmares came flying out of the tunnels, shrieking and trampling eggs under their hooves.

"NO!" Bunny shouted, whipping out his boomerangs and attacking right away. North pulled out his swords and leapt at the nightmares with a shout, but it was hard for him or Bunny to fight as easily as the normally would've because as the eggs fled the Nightmares, both Bunny and North had to avoid stepping on them too.

I darted around as quickly as I could, bursting through them to disintegrate as many as I could. "Pitch!" I shouted, sure that he was nearby. "Pitch, get out here!"

"Stay away from my eggs!" Bunny shouted but the Nightmares were everywhere. They didn't care about us, they only barely paid attention to us. They flew in every direction, following every egg that tried to hide.

It happened so fast and in a few moments, every Nightmare that we hadn't yet destroyed darted back up into the tunnels. Evil laughter rang out seemingly from every tunnel at once but Pitch was still nowhere to be found. We were left standing there surrounded by broken eggshells, our fallen comrades. "No," Bunny said, looking around and shaking his head. "No, this can't..." He sat back and caught his breath, almost looking like he was about to cry. Pitch had destroyed Easter but even more than that, for Bunny it was like losing children. He loved the eggs that were born in his Warren, he took such good care of them and now, to see them all destroyed... I flew over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Bunny..." I said, not knowing what else to say.

"We will get Pitch back," North said, promising Bunny vengeance.

Bunny's ears perked up and he looked toward the tunnels. "Maybe he didn't get all of them. Maybe some still made it to the surface." Without another word he darted down one of the tunnels. North and I took off after him but the farther and farther we went, we only encountered more and more broken eggshells. _Where's Jack?_ I suddenly thought as I flew. _Where is he, he should've been back... he could've helped!_Bunny opened up a tunnel to the surface and we came up within a copse of bushes somewhere in Great Britain. "Shh," he hushed us, stepping forward and peering through the branches.

I looked too. There was a big banner that said, EASTER EGG HUNT - CELEBRATE EASTER SUNDAY AT THE PARK, and below that... "Oh, no..." I whispered. Several children were walking away, many with their heads hung in sadness, holding empty baskets. Still more empty and discarded baskets lay around the park. None of the eggs had made it.

"There's nothing here," one of the kids was saying.

A boy peering behind a bush said, "I don't understand."

Sitting behind him on a picnic table, a girl said, "Maybe he just hid them really well this year.

"Kids, wait!" Bunny said, leaping forward from the bushes and picking up one of the empty baskets. He pulled a few eggs from the pouch at his back where the sheathes of his boomerangs were strapped. I remembered how back at the Pole he'd pulled one out and worked on painting it and realized he must have had a few tucked away.

"I checked everywhere. There's nothing," the boy was saying to the girl.

"Yes, there is," Bunny said, coming over between them and holding up the basket. "There is. These aren't my best-looking googies but they'll do in a pinch."

"I can't believe it," the girl said, jumping off the table and looking straight at Bunny. His eyes lit up but then she said, "there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny." I gasped and Bunny's eyes widened. The girl wasn't looking _at_ him. She was looking _through_ him. North and I came out of the bushes and walked over.

"What? No. Wrong, not - not true!" he said, hopping after her as she walked away. "I'm right in front of you, mate," he said, turning around to another little boy but the boy walked straight through him. I cringed, remembering the feeling when people had first walked through me. Bunny gasped. "They don't see me," he whispered. "They don't see me..."

Bunny sat down and curled up and I flew over to him, putting my hand on his shoulders, which shook. I realized that he was trying not to cry. "Oh, Bunny..." I said, once again at a loss for what to say. I slowly became aware that I was feeling weaker than before, not just from fighting but from something else. I remembered then how when the children had stopped believing in me, they'd started questioning their beliefs in the other Guardians too, so they'd become somewhat weaker too. As the kids stopped believing in the Easter Bunny, they questioned the existence of the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus as well.

A breeze swept through the clearing and I heard North say, "Jack!" I turned and there he was, having just landed. "Where were you?" North said, sounding just as incredulous as I felt. "The Nightmares came, the attacked the tunnels. They smashed every egg, crushed ever basket, nothing made it to the surface!"

"Jack!" I said, flying over. A few feathers fell off of me as I flew. I was about to ask him what happened but then I noticed that he was holding something. I gasped. It was his tooth box. "Where did you get that?" I whispered. It couldn't be true. Jack couldn't have just gone after his memories instead of coming back, he wouldn't do that, he... _But the old Jack wouldn't have ignored Pippa while she was still alive either..._ the thought came unbidden into my head. _No,_ I thought forcefully, _that was because he didn't remember. He's not like that, he wouldn't- _but I was about to cry. I shook my head and looked at him. "Where did you get that?"

"I was - it's -" he started to explain but then I noticed that Baby Tooth wasn't hovering around him like she normally was.

"Where's Baby Tooth?" I asked fearfully. He opened his mouth but nothing came out and he looked away. After I'd opened up my heart to the thought of loving him again, now it was breaking again. He hadn't been there to help us... and he hadn't kept Baby Tooth, the only one of my fairies to escape the Nightmares' grasp, safe. "Jack," I whispered, flying backwards away from him, "what have you done?"

"_That_ is why you weren't here?" North asked, anger creeping into his voice. "You were with Pitch?!"

"No!" Jack said, "Listen, listen..." but then he looked up at us and whispered, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!"

"He has to go." We turned to see that Bunny had walked over.

"What?" Jack asked, surprised.

Bunny stepped forward and raised his fist, shouting, "We should never have trusted you!" He looked like he was about to hit Jack in the face but he held back, shaking slightly as Jack backpedaled. Bunny dropped his fist, sadness coming over him again. "Easter is... new beginnings, new life," he said, sounding hurt. I never seen him so sad. "Easter's about _Hope_," his ears drooped and he turned away, "and now it's gone..." He looked at Jack once more and then turned away.

Jack turned around and looked back at North but North turned away and I couldn't meet Jack's eyes. My loss wasn't anything compared to Bunny's, I knew, but I had trusted Jack, and now Baby Tooth was gone. There was another gust of wind and I looked in time to see Jack flying upward and away.


	22. Chapter 22

There was silence in the little clearing for a few minutes. We didn't know what to do. North was slumped over, using his swords to hold himself up. Bunny had slumped over again and this time I knew he was crying. I couldn't blame him. It was taking all my effort not to cry either. I touched down, the grass soft on my feet and the sun warm on my back. Springtime still made the forest beautiful around us, but there was no happiness.

I looked around but I didn't really register any of the bright and vibrant colors. I knew that what I was feeling couldn't be anything compared to what Bunny was going through but it still hurt. My mind replayed the images of Jack playing with Sophie. His smile, his sincerity, his sweetness... the way he had looked at me. For a little while, I had gotten the old Jack, my Jack back. Everything had been... so much better, in those few minutes than it had been in almost three hundred years. But now...

I was angry at Jack for not being there to fight against the nightmares. He promised he'd be quick. He promised he'd come back. I thought of that smile when he'd said he'd be quick as a bunny. _And I believed him!_ I thought, furiously. _Why do I keep letting this happen? Why do I keep letting myself get let down by him?!_ But I reminded myself that the things that had happened before had been because his memories were gone. His memories though... Something was wrong about that. He'd never been selfish in his human life and I doubted that had changed, but why would he have gone after them? It didn't make any sense. And how could he have gotten them anyway? Pitch had all the... _Pitch! He must've lured Jack in somehow,_ I thought. That had to be it. After all, Jack wouldn't have had the slightest idea where to start looking for wherever it was that Pitch hid out, none of us knew. If we did, we'd have been there already. I sighed, looking around again. That made me a _little_ less angry, I guess. Jack had still run off after his memories but Pitch had lured him in. I reminded myself again that Jack and I were still both teenagers, and if Jack really had been alone for 300 years, then it was a bit more understandable that his desire to know his past would have such a strong hold over him.

But there was still Baby Tooth. Losing her hit me all over again and I suddenly had to choke back a sob. I wrapped my arms around myself tightly, thinking of all of my fairies. I didn't know where any of them were, whether or not they were even still... To be honest, I didn't even know if my fairies _could_ die. I'd never thought about it before. Sure, some of them came back a little worse for the wear after flying through storms and had to take some time off to recover, but none of them had ever died. I assumed that they were like us Guardians in that way; they would live forever but they could still be... _Sandy..._ I thought sadly. If they were like us, then it meant they could still be killed. All of my fairies, all of them could be gone. But somehow, somehow I believed I would've felt it if that had been the case. Knowing Pitch, he probably had them locked away in some dark place. _The poor things are probably scared out of their wits_, I thought, fretting over them like I imagined a mother frets over her children.

Then my thoughts came back to Baby Tooth. She had been the only one not to be captured. Jack had saved her! And now even she was gone! _Because Jack didn't look out for her!_ I thought, furious again. How could he do that? I thought back all those years to the day before we had planned to go skating. He had promised me that he'd never let anything happen to me or Pippa, and he'd kept that promise at the cost of his own life. Surely he could've saved Baby Tooth without that much being lost. _Was she just not that important to him?_ I thought, my face hardening into an unforgiving scowl. Part of me knew that wasn't the case, but it didn't change how hurt and angry I was.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts, still trying to hold back tears, and looked around. I had no idea what we would do next, but standing in this clearing wasn't going to get us anywhere. There was no point in going to the Tooth Palace or the Warren. There was nothing at the Palace for us and I don't know if Bunny could've handled being in the Warren right then anyway. With none of the eggs having made it to the surface, it didn't make sense for us to even try to go convince the children that Bunny was real - he had no eggs left to hide. That left North's Workshop and at least from there, we'd be able to keep an eye on the globe. _Not that that's going to make us feel any better,_ I thought, knowing the lights would be going out. Still, it was better than standing in the park.

I looked over at North. "We should go to the Workshop," I said quietly.  
He looked up at me. "But without the sleigh..." I realized he was right. There was no way for us to get there, besides Bunny's tunnels, and I didn't know if he'd be able to get us there right now. We still had to try though.

I nodded to North and turned and walked over to Bunny. For me, losing my fairies had been difficult but at least for me there was a chance that they were still ok, if a bit scared. For Bunny, though, he'd seen all of the eggs, everything that he had been chosen for, be trampled and broken and shattered, leaving nothing but broken shells. If he didn't have the strength, physical or emotional, to get us back, I wouldn't blame him in the least. He seemed to not be crying anymore but he was still trying to catch his breath. I knelt down next to him. "Bunny," I said quietly. He nodded but didn't look up. "We should probably go back to-"

"-the Workshop," he said, his voice quiet but rough. "I know."

"I hate asking this of you," I said, "but do you think your tunnels...? Without the sleigh..."

He rubbed his eyes and looked up at me, nodding. He looked determined but I could tell it was taking a huge effort to put on that mask of strength. "Yeah. Yeah, I can get us back." He stood up, and so did I.

"North," I called, looking up to see him already making his way toward us. We gathered close and Bunny tapped his foot against the ground. A hole opened below us but we were expecting it this time, not crying out in surprise as we had last time. We slid through the tunnels again, not quite as quickly as we had before, with Bunny hopping along side us. He was slower than before and I realized that his powers were fading. It was probably a huge effort for him to get us back to the Pole.

Eventually we popped back out of the ground, landing in several feet of snow. I looked up and saw the lights of the workshop in the distance. Bunny was standing up slowly, looking away from us. "Sorry," he said, and I wasn't sure what he was apologizing for at first but then he said, "I tried to get us closer..."

"It is ok," North said, "it is not a long walk from here."

I wrapped my arms around myself, grateful that I could hover over the snow instead of having to walk in it. I didn't have fur like Bunny did, but I knew he was cold too. It was a bit easier for North because he was used to the cold environment, but still, it was an unpleasant journey. We were all moving more slowly now, and I knew that we were all starting to feel the effects of children not believing. North seemed unsteady on his feet and I faltered in the air, almost falling into the snow more than once, but Bunny was moving more slowly than either of us.

Finally, we were back at the Workshop. I had never entered or exited the building through a door before, always using the skylight except for when Bunny had taken us through the tunnels to the Warren. We made our way through a few hallways before reaching the familiar landing where the big fireplace was. The elves wandered around us, looking up at us and the yetis were even moving more slowly than usual but they still toiled away at the toys. I tried to push away the thought but I knew I couldn't be the only one thinking it: _Is there going to be a Christmas this year?_

Once again, we all gathered around the fire. North had turned and was looking at the globe. I was trying to keep my eyes away from it because I knew it wouldn't be an uplifting sight. Bunny was crouched as close to the fire as he could, until he stopped shivering. He was still breathing heavily and I was wondering if he was crying again but he suddenly stood up and turned around, a hard, angry look on his face. He stalked forward, stopping on the Guardian crest on the floor, and looked up through the skylight where the Moon hung, visible as always.

"This is your fault!" he shouted, startling me, North, and several elves. "This is your fault, Moon! Did we really need a new Guardian?" He raised his fist. "Didn't you know that Frost would betray us?"

"Bunny," I said quietly. I was mad at Jack too, but I knew that what Bunny thought - that Jack had gone off to find Pitch completely of his own accord - wasn't true.

He ignored me though. "We were better off without him," Bunny shouted. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted that little brat!" The elves were starting to back away, ducking under tables and behind bookshelves. "He ruined everything! He doesn't care about any of us, he doesn't care about children, he's a selfish, irresponsible-"

"Bunny," I said louder, a bit of anger in my own voice now, but I wasn't expecting him to turn on me.

"I don't want to hear it," he said angrily, pointing his paw at me. "You said you weren't friends with him but he never stopped being your little boyfriend, did he?

"Hey!" I shouted. I didn't normally fight, but my nerves were as frayed as everyone's and I was hurting too. "He wasn't my friend, he wasn't my boyfriend-"

"You, you out of all of us should've seen this coming but you were too caught up in your little crush-"

"Don't you think I feel bad enough? Don't you think I feel stupid for trusting him too?!" I shouted, starting to cry again. I knew the situation wasn't what Bunny thought but it was bringing back my memories of every time I'd felt hurt about Jack not caring anymore. Yes, I had felt betrayed, yes, I had felt stupid for trusting him, yes, it hurt!

"I don't ca-"

"Stop it!" North said forcefully, pushing in between us. I hadn't realized that Bunny and I had advanced on each other so far. "This is what Pitch wants," he said, glaring back and forth at both of us, "he wants to tear us apart, he wants us to be angry-"

"I _am_ angry!" Bunny shouted and North turned to him.

"We are all upset!" North said, putting his fists at his hips and drawing himself up to his full height.

Bunny stood up taller too, his own fists still balled up, but he was starting to shake. "Frost ruined my bloody holiday!"

"No, he didn't!" I said, "Pitch did!"

"Tooth!" North said, looking over his shoulder at me, and I shrunk back from his glare.

"She's right, Bunny," he said though, turning back to Bunny. "This is Pitch's fault, not Jack's."

"But we shouldn't have trusted him!" Bunny said, but he was quieter now, shrinking back down again, shaking harder. "He's not... he's not a Guardian!" Bunny looked at the floor and we were all quite for a second.

North sighed. "I do not know why Manny chose Jack," he said, "but he had a reason. We are all upset, but we cannot let this turn us against each other." He stepped back, no longer between Bunny and I, and looked at both of us. "We must stick together." I knew he was right but Bunny's comments had stung and I was shaking slightly too, my defenses still up.

He looked up at me though, his eyes hard at first but then softening. He looked away again. "I'm sorry, Tooth," he said, and I knew how hard that must've been.

I softened, remembering everything that Bunny had just lost. "I..." I looked away too. "I'm sorry, too."

"There," North said. "Now... we need to figure out what to do." He and I both looked up at the globe, and the lights were going out faster than ever.

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked hopelessly. "We're losing our powers, we can't stand up to Pitch without children believing in us... Soon, none of them will at all."

"No," North said, "No, they cannot all stop believing." But he sounded pretty hopeless too. After all, what could stop the children from losing faith? It wasn't as though we could walk up to them and explain what was going on, they wouldn't be able to see-

"Wait!" I said. I made to fly up to one part of the globe, but I faltered, landing on one of North's worktables instead, almost tumbling over the balcony but Bunny grabbed me. I looked over my shoulder at him and we both knew that we hadn't meant to be so mean to each other earlier. I turned my gaze back up to the globe, to North America. Despite all of the lights going out all around it, there was still one glowing brightly, not wavering at all. "That boy, that boy who saw us in his room!" I said urgently. "Jamie!"

"Yes!" North said. "Perhaps he can help us!"

"But what can he do?" Bunny asked, helping me down off the worktable. He was shaking harder now and I could tell I was getting weaker.

"I don't know," I said, "but he's our only hope now."

"Hope..." Bunny said, and as I turned to look at him, he suddenly began to shrink and before I knew it, he really was a tiny bunny. I gasped and so did he. "What-" he began but he clearly had no idea what to say. Neither did North or I, though some of the elves crept back out from there hiding places and crept closer to him, fascinated and probably wanted to pet him.

We were all quiet for a second and then North said, "I guess this means we are taking the sleigh."


	23. Chapter 23

Quick note: I think the italics are fixed.

* * *

We once again took the path through the workshop to the sort of "garage" where North's sleigh was kept. In a way, our powers as the Guardians were linked. In their minds, kids typically believed in either all of us or none of us, so when they began to question their belief in one Guardian, they would also question the existence of the other Guardians too. That's why we were all feeling so tired now. Sure, Bunny was hit hardest, but North was moving pretty slow and I could barely even hover anymore. It was like my wings just didn't want to work, so I walked along next to North. Normally I was able to hover at his height but walking next to him, I became very aware of just how big he really was. But he was slumped over in exhaustion. It looked like all of the troubles of the world had been laid across this one old man's shoulders and this time he couldn't just smile and laugh it away. I began to wonder if this was just going to be the end of the Guardians once and for all.

Bunny was barely as tall as the elves now and he kept having to jump over and around them. Quite a few were following us, surprised by bunny's transportation, and more than once he had to shoo them away because they all wanted to pet him. I couldn't help but smile a little and I leaned down and scooped Bunny up into my arms.

"What? Hey," Bunny started but I looked down at him pointedly.

"It's faster this way," I said, chuckling a little.

He took a deep breath like he was going to protest but then he just sighed. I didn't think he had it in him to fight anymore, and he was probably pretty tired too. "Alright," he said, "just this once. Nobody is to hear about this," he demanded, looking up at me.

All I could do though was chuckle a little more. It was really hard to take him seriously. "Plus, you're really soft and cute," I teased him, scratching between his ears

He grumbled a little but didn't protest further. When we reached the sleigh tunnel, it was already there waiting for us. The reindeer weren't stomping and snorting like before – like they weren't as eager or, more likely, they were feeling tired too. North climbed into the sleigh, and it was obvious it took more effort than usual. I reached up and set Bunny in the sleigh – this time without the fuss from him about his tunnels being faster – and then I climbed in after him. It took North a few shakes of the reins to even get the reindeer to pay attention to him but eventually they pulled into a run and we were off.

Bunny, being so small, was having a lot more difficulty holding on this time and he looked up at me and then jumped into my lap. I held onto him so that he wouldn't fly out and knew that he'd never want me to mention this ever again. Once we were out in open sky, I figured that he'd take his own seat again, but he didn't. I didn't mind – he really was soft and cuddly. North used one of his snow globes but because his powers were weakening, we came out of the portal about a hundred miles to the east of where we were supposed to be, so North turned the sleigh west. It wasn't nearly as smooth of a flight as before but there wasn't much we could do about that. We were all quiet for a while but eventually Bunny spoke up.

"I'm sorry, Tooth," he said quietly.

"What?" I said, having been thinking about Baby Tooth.

"I'm sorry. For what I said. About you and Jack."

"It's okay," I said, scratching between his ears again. "I'm sorry too. For yelling and..." I sighed and thought back to what Bunny had said, about me being the one who should've seen this coming. "... and for not seeing this coming."

"It is not your fault, Tooth," North said over his shoulder. "This is not just about Jack, this is about Pitch. Pitch has done things that none of us could have predicted."

"I still don't think we should've trusted him," Bunny said angrily, getting a bit of his old attitude back. I wanted to defend Jack but I didn't want to start a fight again and it was still hard to get the thought of Baby Tooth out of my head. I know that ultimately, it was Pitch's fault, but the fact that Jack would let Baby Tooth out of his sight in a dangerous situation like that, all to recover his own teeth and the- I gasped.

"His memories," I whispered.

"What?" Bunny asked me.

"Jack had his teeth," I said, "his memories." I'd been so caught up in everything that was happening that it hadn't even crossed my mind that Jack might have his memory back, that he might've remembered everything, including...

"Do you think he remembers who you are now?" North asked me, voicing the question that I had just been asking myself.

"I... I don't know," I said, and honestly I didn't. I didn't know if he had actually looked at his memories yet or not, or whether or not I was even included in those memories. But then, I realized... "Even if he does remember who I was as a human, he's got no way of knowing that she became me."

"Well, maybe now Manny will let you tell him," North said.

I tried to smile, but it was hard. My emotions were too messed up and at the moment I wasn't really sure if I actually did want Jack to know who I was. I couldn't help but be a little curious but now wasn't the right time. There were too many other things at stake. Hopefully the boy, Jamie, would be able to help us. I wasn't sure what he'd be able to do, but he was our only hope left.

The reindeer's flight grew more and more erratic and turbulent and I was beginning to wonder if we'd even make to Jamie's house but we finally reached his neighborhood, and just in time. We dipped dangerously low over the rooftops, barely missing power lines and streetlights until we came crashing down in front of Jamie's house, the sleigh coming to a grinding halt. Bunny was knocked out of my lap and we all tumbled to the floor of the sleigh while the harness holding the reindeer to the sleigh came undone and they went running off down the street. "Ah, moi deti! Come back!" North called after them as he pushed himself to his feet. He seemed very unsteady so I tried to help him.

"North, are you okay?"

"Is official," he said sadly, "my powers are kaput."

The sleigh settled a bit and North toppled over but then I noticed someone leaping down from Jamie's bedroom window. It was Jack! "Look!" I cried out. I was surprised to see him there – but he was probably kind of surprised to see us too. What was even more surprising though, was that I felt really happy to see him. Whether he remembered or not, and even though I was still upset about Easter and Baby Tooth, I knew that he'd be able to help us and we needed all the help we could get. "Jack!" I said, making to fly off of the sleigh, but though my wings worked for an instant, I'd forgotten how much strength I'd lost and I tumbled to the ground.

Jack leaned down and helped me to my feet. "You okay?" he asked me.

I felt a little embarrassed as I smoothed my feathers back down and was saved the task of commenting further by North who had climbed out of the sleigh and came forward, leaning heavily on his swords. "What are you doing here?" he asked Jack.

"Same as you," Jack said with a little smile as he turned and looked behind him to where Jamie was coming running out of the front door of his house, still in his pajamas and bare feet.

"The last light," North said as Jamie came over to us.

"Wow," the boy said, his eyes wide, "it _is_ you. I mean, it _is_ you!" He looked around at all of us with a big smiled and I noticed the gap where his tooth had been knocked out. He laughed happily, reaching out to touch North's hand. "I knew it wasn't a dream!" and then he turned and looked straight at Jack.

"Jack," North said, "he _sees_ you." I couldn't help but smile now because I knew what that must mean to Jack. The first child in 300 years to see him.

Jack smiled and nudged Jamie who smiled back, but then Jack looked at us. "Wait, but where's Bunny?" Despite the fact that Bunny had almost decked him last time they'd seen each other, Jack seemed genuinely concerned.

I realized Bunny was still in the sleigh and wondered how Jack was going to react. "Losing Easter took its toll on all of us," North said seriously, "Bunny most of all." We turned and looked over our shoulders at the sleigh where Bunny hopped up onto the handrail and then out onto the sleigh's flight-fin.

"Oh no," Jack said and I was surprised that he didn't take the opportunity to take a shot at Bunny, but then I remembered that while Jackson was a trickster, he also knew when to take a situation seriously – I had to remind myself that Jack Frost wasn't quite as cold-hearted as I'd believed for so long.

Jamie chuckled though, walking over to Bunny. "That's the Easter Bunny?"  
Bunny stood up on his back paws, though the effect wasn't quite as impressive as it was when he was six feet tall. "Now somebody sees me!" he said in exasperation. "Where were you about an hour ago, mate?"

"What happened to him?" Jamie asked. "He used to be huge and cool. And now he's..." he scratched Bunny's chin, "cute."

Bunny got distracted for a moment, enjoying the attention, but then he waved Jamie off in frustration with his furry little paws and turned to Jack. "Did you tell him to say that? That's it!" He jumped off the sleigh and kicked at Jack's legs, hopping around with his paws up like a boxer. "Let's go! Me and you! Come on!"

But Jamie came over and knelt by Bunny. "No, actually, he told me you were real!" he said. "Just when I started to think that... maybe you weren't..." he said, sounding ashamed that he'd ever doubted.

Bunny looked up at him in surprised. "He made you believe?" he asked. "In me?" Jamie nodded and Bunny looked over at Jack and smiled. I couldn't help but smile now too. I knew that Bunny wouldn't forgive Jack just like that, but this was a good start.

Just then, thunder cracked across the sky. We all moved closer together instinctively and turned, looking upward to see Pitch Black there, hovering on a huge cloud of black sand. Jack stepped forward. "Get Jamie out of here," he said over his shoulder to us. My first thought was, _No, we're going to fight too,_ but then I remembered that North, Bunny and I, were all quite weak, and without our powers, we'd be no help.

"Be careful, Jack," North said.

I watched a moment more as Jack flew up into the sky and headed straight for Pitch. I just wanted all of this to be over. I wanted us all to be safe again. Because maybe Jack did remember now. Maybe he _did_ remember Tabitha. Maybe after this, we would talk and I could finally tell him... tell him who I was and how I had felt that way all those years ago. Then I turned to follow North and Bunny who were hurrying away with Jamie. We needed to find somewhere Jamie would be safe and where we could help protect him, somewhere that Pitch wouldn't be able to find him. Bunny, who was the fastest out of all of us at the moment, was leading the way. North was hobbling along, leaning on his swords and going as fast as he could, and it was taking me some time to get used to actual running on the ground.

Bunny turned corner after corner, saying, "This way, this way!" and eventually he accidentally lead us into a small alley with no other exit. "Ahhh, dead end! Other way, other way!" he shouted, turning around. North sighed as Bunny ran back past him. Jamie and I turned to follow him but then we heard a crashing sound. We turned in time to see Jack come crashing down onto a dumpster lid and then falling onto the asphalt face-first.  
"Jack!" Jamie cried, running over to him, with me following close behind. Jack climbed to his feet with Jamie's help. He didn't seem too badly hurt.

North patted his back. "That was good try, Jack. 'A' for effort," and I almost chuckled. North was ever the optimist.

Jack's tone took the humor from me though when he said, "He's stronger. I can't beat him." North looked at me seriously because we both knew that if Jack couldn't get to Pitch, we were all in deep trouble.

I began to panic a little now, and then a laugh echoed through the alleyway, a sound that we all recognized too well. His shadow crossed over us and then his voice rang out. "All this fuss over one little boy and still he refuses to stop believing," Pitch said. The shadow of Pitch riding a Nightmare appeared momentarily on the side of a parked semi-truck and then he said, "Very well. There are other ways to snuff out of a light." Another shadow passed through the alley and as it did, the light bulbs keeping the area lit burst one by one, emphasizing Pitch's point.

Jack and North both protectively moved in front of Jamie while Bunny leapt forward saying, "If you want him, you're gonna have to go through me." Unfortunately, that was a little less intimidating with Bunny in his current state.

A shadow in the shape of a hand stretched across the ground toward Bunny and Pitch's voice sounded amused now. "Ah, look how fluffy you are! Would you like a scratch behind the ears?" His voice had the tone of someone talking to a small child or a pet and Bunny leapt away from the shadow and up into North's hand.

"Don't you even think about it!" he said indignantly.

"I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you all like this," Pitch's voice rang out, more sinister now as suddenly Nightmares appeared and advanced on us. And there Pitch was, riding one. "You look awful," he said. Thunder crashed behind him and more shadows stretched out toward us. I didn't know what we were going to do. We couldn't win.

"Jack," Jamie said quietly as the shadows reached his feet, "I'm scared."

Jack knelt down and put his hand Jamie's shoulder, as though to comfort him, but his eyes went far away for a second, like he was remembering something. I couldn't believe that at a desperate time like this, these warm memories of my own were coming to mind, but I couldn't help imagine Jack with Pippa and the way he'd always taken care of her – and then I thought, _The memories from the Tooth Box! Maybe he's remembering Pippa too!_ "I know, I know, but you're gonna be alright," Jack said, sounding a little distracted, looking down. "But we're gonna have a little fun instead." He looked at Jamie and his eyes widened. "That's it! That's my center!" Jamie looked at Jack like maybe he was losing his mind but I vaguely remembered North talking to me about his center and me finding my own centuries ago and I realized that Jack had just figured out what his was.

Pitch just laughed evilly, coming closer and closer, and said, "So what do you think, Jamie? Do you believe in the Boogey-argh!" he shouted as he was suddenly hit in the face with a snowball that Jack had seemingly conjured out of nowhere.

I snorted and Jamie burst out laughing but then closed his mouth and looked around like he was worried he'd get in trouble for laughing at the Boogey Man. North and Bunny and Jack were all laughing too and Jack looked behind him at a pile of stuff that people had thrown out, and then looked at Jamie. "Now, let's go get your friends," Jack said. Jack quickly grabbed a few of the things and handed them to us – a short ladder for Jamie, a wooden crate palette for North, a big plastic bin cover for me and what looked like a wok for Bunny, and with a smile he said, "Hold on," and before I knew it, we were all sliding along a stretch of ice of Jack's creation. We slid right past Pitch who was still trying to get the snow off his face, and on down the street, back through Jamie's neighborhood.

Jack made the ice go up and down and in loops even as he began throwing snowballs at kids' windows. Now that he knew what his center was, I think he had even more control over his powers – I glimpsed snow through bedroom windows and saw kids waking up, trying to figure out what was going on. He grabbed hold of Jamie and flew him up in the air so that his friends would be able to see him. One girl stuck her head out the window. "Jamie, how are you doing that?"

"Jack Frost!" he shouted happily. "Come on, we need your help!"

A few more kids leaned out their windows and North shouted, "Merry Christmas!"

"Happy Easter!" Bunny called.

"Don't forget to floss!" I added.

In a few moments, we had a bunch of kids in their pajamas sliding along behind us.

"The Easter Bunny's real!" one shouted.

"And the Tooth Fairy!" another one said.

"And Santa!"

"They're all real!"

I was excited, and we were all having fun, but then Jack slid to a stop and so we all did, and when I looked up, I knew why. With a backdrop of huge thunder clouds and flashing lightning, there came a huge tidal wave of black sand and there was Pitch, on a Nightmare on a rooftop. "You think a few children can help you? Against this?" he shouted. I was instantly filled with dread because he was right. Pitch was so powerful now and all we had was about ten kids and three guardians who barely had any power left, and Jack, who couldn't just beat Pitch like he did before. The black sand roiled and crashed, coming closer to us in every direction. North lifted a sword like he was ready to fight, but he could barely keep it aloft, letting it drop down and leaning on it heavily. Who were we trying to fool? We were powerless now. I quickly steadied North, and I heard Jamie gasp. Jack turned to him.

"They're just bad dreams, Jamie," he said, trying to comfort the boy.

"And we'll protect you, mate," Bunny said, sounding a bit unsure but still much braver than I think any of us felt right then.

"Aw, you'll protect them?" Pitch called. "But who will protect you?"

I was at a loss and I think the others were too. Thunder crashed and all I knew was that I was scared and I didn't know what chance we had. Jack turned and looked from North to me. He took a deep breath but didn't say anything – but I saw it in his eyes.

There was my Jackson Overland, who cared more about other people than he did about himself. Jackson Overland who would do anything to cheer someone up, who would help anyone who needed it, who would make a fool of himself to make someone smile. Jackson Overland, who had saved his sister from a cold death under the ice at the cost of his own life. My Jackson, who would give up himself in an instant if it meant keeping someone else safe. And that was what he intended to do: fight Pitch even if it meant his own destruction. Jack was going to give himself up to save us all.

North shook his head and I stepped forward, reaching out. "No," I said quietly. It couldn't end this way. Jack couldn't beat Pitch, he would be destroyed, like Sandy was. But he couldn't. I hadn't told him yet, who I really was. I didn't know yet if he remembered Tabitha, I hadn't told him yet that I loved him, that I did 300 years ago and that I still did now. He'd been taken away from me before, before I'd had the chance to say it, and now that was going to happen all over again. "Jack, no," I said, tears springing to my eyes.

"It's gonna be ok," he said quietly, but even he looked a little scared. He turned and took a step toward Pitch...

But then Jamie stepped forward and said, "I will."

A tough little girl pushed ahead of the others and stood by Jamie. "I will," she said.

Then two more boys, brothers, came forward too, both saying, "I will."

"And me," said another girl.

"I'll try," said a nervous boy in glasses.

North and Bunny and I all looked at each other. We weren't sure what the children would be able to do, but they had just as good of a shot as we did at this point.

"Still think there's no such thing as the Boogey Man?" Pitch shouted, menacingly as a tidal wave of black sand came rushing toward us, busting out light bulbs as it crashed down.

But Jamie and his friends stood firm and he said, "I do believe in you. I'm just not afraid of you!"

The sand rose up into the air and twisted together, diving straight down at Jamie before any of us could really react. Jamie raised a hand to protect himself and the sand came crashing into him...

And where it hit his hand, the sand suddenly turned gold, like Sandy's dreamsand. We all gasped in surprise and the children began to laugh as the gold sand tendrils stretched out and swirled around us. I felt a sudden rush of warmth and tingling and my wings started beating – I could fly again! I didn't know what exactly had caused it but North's suddenly regained color too and he stood up straighter, hefting his swords with ease.

I heard Pitch cry out, "No! Get them! Do your jobs!" and suddenly there were Nightmares everywhere, but with my powers back, I could fight again. I saw a few chase Bunny under a car and receive a heck of a surprise when they pulled out not the cute little miniature version of Bunny but the full six-foot-one and full-of-attitude version. North pulled out a couple snow globes, opening portals and summoning yetis from the Pole who came marching out, ready to fight. A few of the more gung-ho elves came along too. Bunny opened a few tunnels and his big egg statues came out and leapt into the fray with their angry faces forward.

"Let's get 'em!" shouted the tough little girl, and her and her friends leapt into action, diving right and left at the Nightmares. Wherever a child touched one, it turned into gold dream sand. Yetis and egg statues smashed the Nightmares into nothingness right and left, Bunny and his boomerangs were taking down one after another, North's swords took down several more, and I was bursting through them too, finally able to fly at full speed again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw blue flashes of light and saw Jack shooting ice at the Nightmares around Pitch. The yetis, statues, and kids seemed to be handling things on the ground, so North, Bunny, and I headed up to the rooftop where Jack and Pitch were fighting.

Pitch was trying to get away, dashing across the rooftops and behind rooftop structures, but right as Jack came around a corner, Pitch send a bolt of dark sand at him. I darted toward it, causing it to dissipate as I burst through it. "Thanks Tooth!" Jack called to me and I smiled. We could win now, I knew it! I burst through more Nightmares and Bunny took out more with his boomerangs. Bunny and I tried to corner Pitch but he darted away from us, still riding a Nightmare, and attempted to leap to another rooftop, but North was there jumping toward him. He swung his sword and burst the Nightmare, leaving Pitch to fall down into the street.

Pitch formed a huge, scary-looking scythe out of black sand and tried to hit us, but with the four of us all working together and moving around so fast, he didn't managed to land a blow. Finally, we managed to corner him between a couple buildings and against a bank of parked school buses. As we advanced on him now, Jack said, "It's over, Pitch. There's no place to hide."

_We've won,_ I thought. But then Pitch laughed evilly and sunk into a shadow on the ground. We all looked around as multiple shadows played across the walls of the houses around us but then Bunny turned and shouted, "Jack, look out!" I looked in time to see that Pitch had reappeared where he'd been standing before. He deftly deflected one of Bunny's boomerangs and made to swing his scythe at Jack. I went to fly forward, but suddenly, a tendril of gold sand wrapped itself Pitch's hands and scythe and pulled him backwards over the school buses and into a small park beyond.

There on a small hilltop, a bunch of the gold sand was swirling together. _It can't be,_ I thought, but then, I really didn't know exactly how the whole 'immortal' thing really operated. And then, out of the cloud of gold sand, came the Sandman himself. "Sandy!" I shouted.

"He's back!" North said.

"Yeah!" Bunny said.

Sandy had caught Pitch with a sand-whip, pulling him close and shaking a finger at him like a parent with a naughty child. Then, the quiet, sweet little Sandman gave Pitch an almighty punch, sending him straight up into the sky.

The children rushed over and Sandy conjured a sand-hat, tipping it in introduction, before giving the whip (still wrapped around Pitch) a yank, bring him crashing back down to earth.

We all rushed over to Sandman and everyone was cheering. I couldn't believe he was back and on top of that, he had just saved us all. "Mate, you are a sight for sore eyes," Bunny said happily. Sandy nodded and then floated upward on his cloud of dreamsand, releasing more tendrils of gold sand like he always did before, sending them off to bring good dreams to children.

North and Bunny and I looked at each other and I think we all were feeling more and more of our strength returning. Sandy was making kids dream about us, I realized. I felt a slight fluttering in my heart then, unsure of what it was until I realized that somewhere, my fairies were still alive, getting their own powers back and opening hundreds and hundreds of tooth boxes. I smiled and whispered, "They're alive. My fairies are alive!" Bunny reached over and hugged me and Jack smiled at me. Everything was going to be ok. All around us, the dreamsand was taking the shapes of the good dreams of children everywhere. Stingrays floated through the air with schools of fish and paper cranes, and dinosaurs roamed the streets. I even saw a unicorn trot past.

Before I knew it, Jack had started a snowball fight and we were suddenly surrounded by kids laughing and throwing snowballs. Jamie's little sister, Sophie, quite the curious little girl, had come running out of her house and joined in the fun too. Baby Tooth came zipping out of nowhere, crashing into my feather crest and nuzzling me before landing in my hands. "Oh, I'm so glad you're ok!" I said, ruffling her little feathers. She informed me that all the others were ok too – I noticed a few of them zipping around – and that the rest had begun the long task of returning all the Tooth Boxes to the Tooth Palace where they belonged.

North and Bunny and I were just joining the snowball fight when Pitch, all but forgotten, climbed to his feet, and shouted, "You dare have fun in my presence? I am the Boogey Man, and you _will_ fear me!" He headed toward Jamie menacingly, but Jamie didn't notice at all, and actually ran straight _through_ Pitch. "No!" Pitch shouted. "No..." In that moment, I almost felt bed for him. After all, he just wanted to be believed in. But my heart hardened when I thought of all he'd done to achieve that. He'd ruined Easter, destroyed Sandy (albeit temporarily), and he'd imprisoned my fairies. He'd made us fight amongst ourselves and he'd terrified and broken the spirits of children everywhere. I _almost_ felt bad for him, but not quite. And then, he turned and ran.

_That coward,_ I thought, and we all darted after him, managing to cut him off at a lake. He had been looking over his shoulder and didn't see North until he ran straight into his belly and toppled over. "Leaving the party so soon?" North asked.

"You didn't even say goodbye," I said, flying forward. I wasn't the type for a big grand revenge scheme but I owed him something. I tossed a quarter into his hand.

"A quarter?" he asked, looking up just in time to see my fist as I punched him full in the face, hard enough to knock out one of his teeth.

I shook out my hand – I'd never punched someone before so I didn't know how much it was going to hurt – and said, "And that's for my fairies," finally feeling satisfied. A bunch of the girls flew forward, squeaking angrily at him.

Pitch scrambled to his feet. "You can't get rid of me! Not forever," he said, trying to sound intimidating. "There will always be fear," he said, but none of us were worried anymore.

"So what?" North said. "As long as one child believes, we will be here to fight fear."

"Really?" Pitch said with that annoying smarmy tone. "Then what are _they_ doing here?" He gestured to the Nightmares that were gathering around the edges of the lake.

"They can't be my Nightmares, I am not afraid," North said with a shrug. We all looked at each other, agreeing that none of us felt afraid anymore, and Jack stepped forward.

"Looks like it's _your_ fear they smell," he said.

Pitch whimpered a little and then turned and ran as the Nightmares suddenly chased after him, disappearing into the forest beyond the lake. We could hear him screaming for a while, and then silence. Finally, the fighting was over. Pitch was gone, the kids were safe, we were safe, Jack was safe.

I laughed joyously and flew over to Jack, hugging him tightly. He hugged me back and smiled at me and for a moment, it was just us, kids again. Carefree and happy and together, like we used to be. Jack Frost and Toothiana, now Jackson and Tabitha again. For a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me and all I could do was smile. Then, I suddenly remembered that everyone else was there, and one of my fairies flew in between me and Jack, chirping at me. I blushed and back away but Jack just laughed.

North stepped forward. "Are you ready now, Jack? To make it official." Jack nodded and one of the yetis brought forth the big book that held the Oath of the Guardians. "Then it is time you take Oath," North said. He leafed through the book to the right page. As he began to read the Oath, the yetis, egg statues, kids, and elves all began to gather around us as well. "Will you, Jack Frost, vow to watch over the children of the world, to guard them with your life, their hopes, their wishes, and their dreams, for they are all that we have, all that we are, and all that we will ever be?"

Jack looked over his shoulder at Jamie, who smiled wide and nodded, and then turned back to North. He was ready now, ready to be a Guardian. "I will," he said, smiling.  
"Then, congratulations, Jack Frost, for you are now, and forever more, a Guardian!" North said proudly. Everyone cheered, and North picked up Jack, kissing him on both cheeks.  
I laughed and noticed my fairies floating in a heart shape as they stared at Jack. "Keep it together girls," I chuckled, even though I barely was. I still just wanted to kiss Jack.

Suddenly, North's sleigh came out of the sky and landed on the frozen-over lake, his reindeer somehow hitched back up to it again. All of the children stared in wonder. They were all saying things like, "Wow, look at that!" and "It's real!"

"Everyone loves the sleigh," Bunny chuckled.

North put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Time to go," he said.

He then looked at Sandman who, with a flourish, made several fireworks of dreamsand explode overhead, raining down dreamsand that would eventually help the children fall asleep. It was, after all, the wee hours of the morning now, and the children had been up for most of the night. Bunny went to say goodbye to Sophie and the rest of us headed toward the sleigh. But Jamie stopped Jack.

"You're leaving?" the boy said. "But what if Pitch comes back? What if we stop believing again? If I can't see you..."

"Hey, slow down, slow down," Jack said with a smile, crouching down and putting a hand on Jamie's shoulder. I smiled. Jack would always be a big brother, always. "Are you telling me you stop believing in the moon when the sun comes up?"

"No," Jamie said.

"Okay, well, do you stop believing in the sun when clouds block it out?"

"No," Jamie chuckled.

"We'll always be there, Jamie," Jack said, "and now, we'll always be here," he pointed to Jamie's heart, "which kind of makes you a Guardian too." I smiled. Jack always knew just what to say to kids. Jamie was beaming.

Jack stood and turned to walk over to the sleigh, but suddenly Jamie called out, "Jack!" Jack turned and Jamie ran over and hugged him. Jack looked surprised and I just about cried then and there. It was probably the first time a kid had hugged Jack since the last time Pippa had hugged him, 300 years ago. Jack leaned down and hugged Jamie and I sniffled a little. Bunny looked at me and chuckled, patting my knee.

"A happy ending for the kid," Bunny said quietly to me. "But how about you? Are you going to tell him?" I chuckled and rolled my eyes. I still wasn't sure what I was going to do. But right now, I was just glad to see Jack happy.

Jack turned then and jumped onto the sleigh's flight-fin. With a crack of the reins, North spurred the reindeer into flight and we took off into the sky. We'd defeated Pitch. Everyone was safe, Sandy was back, the kids were ok, and I couldn't stop looking at Jack, all the way back to the Pole.


End file.
